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SINCE Johnson (1927) first reported on studies concerning immunity to Eimeria tenella many workers have reported on studies in this field. Tyzzer (1929) and Tyzzer et al. (1932) reported that immunity produced was species specific with no indication of cross-immunity between coccidial species. Most workers have used cultures of E. tenella for immunity studies without trying to alter or attenuate the organisms. Jankiewicz and Scofield (1934) used heat while Waxler (1941) used x-ray to attenuate oocysts of E. tenella for immunization studies. Whether or not attenuation occurred is doubtful since the results obtained might have been due to the death of some of the oocysts; thus reducing the viable dosage of oocysts administered. This report is on work designed to provide information on the dosage, the number of inoculations, and the time required to develop immunity against E. tenella. The criterion used to determine the degree of protection from the …

HERRICK and Holmes (1936) have reported protective effects from feeding flowers of sulphur in a ration to chickens several days before they were artificially inoculated with a pure culture of Eimeria tenella, one of six species of coccidia that are known to infect chickens. These studies were undertaken to determine if sulphur would protect against inoculation with pure cultures of Eimeria acervulina as well as Eimeria tenella. E. acervulina was chosen because it is one of the species most frequently encountered infecting the small intestine, and has been shown by Johnson (1931) to adversely affect the health of chickens. In these investigations Single Comb White Leghorn chickens, of varying ages, were fed flowers of sulphur in a ration for six to eight days before and for six to eight days after they were inoculated with massive doses of sporulated occysts of either E. acervulina or E. tenella. The criteria used . . .

SEVERAL investigators have shown sulfaquinoxaline to be an effective coccidiostatic agent against Eimeria tenella and Eimeria necatrix infections. This report deals with the effect of sulfaquinoxaline against Eimeria acervulina infection in young pullets in egg production. PROCEDURE Sixty-five White Leghorn pullets were reared under controlled conditions to keep them free of coccidial infection. At about 10 weeks of age each bird was placed in an individual laying cage. When they were laying about 50 percent egg production they were divided into 5 lots of 13 birds each. An effort was made to make an equal distribution of the birds on the basis of body weight and the time of laying the first egg. Beginning at this period of lot designation the birds were weighed individually twice each week at 3 or 4 day intervals. The pullets were fed an all-mash ration which was supplemented with oyster shell, when egg production . . .

ONE of the most important factors in the development of clinical or fatal coccidiosis in susceptible chickens is the dosage of sporulated oocysts ingested at one time. Since Johnson (1927) drew attention to “the relationship of the number of sporulated oocysts ingested to the severity of the disease,” only very limited information has been available regarding this important factor. Further, Johnson (1931) reported “complete temporary cessation of (egg) production” when susceptible birds were inoculated “with large doses of pure cultures” of Eimeria acervulina. He did not reveal, however, what was considered as a large dose. Tyzzer (1929) also drew attention to the effect of the size of the dose of E. acervulina, but did not mention what approximate dosages were used. In a comparison with Eimeria tenetta his statement that “while with E. tenella a single feeding of a relatively moderate number of oocysts may produce serious or fatal results . . .

JOHNSON (1927) first demonstrated that immunity or resistance to coccidial infection in chickens was developed following coccidial infection. Tyzzer (1929, 1932) has shown there are several different species of coccidia that infect chickens and that the immunity produced is species specific and no cross-immunity is produced between species. Very little has been done to determine the possibility of a program of artificial immunization since this basic information was disclosed. This report deals with a trial on chicks to establish guides for dosages, age to inoculate, management, and the role coccidiostatic drugs may play in a program of artificial immunization. It also provides data on the effect of immunization on development of growing birds and their ability to withstand coccidial challenge. PROCEDURE The trial consisted of four pens of straight run New Hampshire chicks with 195 chicks to each pen. They were brooded under electric brooders with shavings as litter. For . . .

Several investigators report that certain sulfa drugs effectively reduce mortality from pullorum disease in baby chicks or turkey poults. This naturally gives rise to the speculation that perhaps some of the sulfas may be effective in eradicating localized Salmonella pullorum infection in adult breeding stock. Severen et al. (1945) report “at 9 months of age, female survivors which had been treated when 1 day old with sulfadiazine and sulfamerazine gave negative reactions to pullorum agglutination tests.” Cooper et al. (1947) report that sulfamerazine fed to pullorum reactor hens for 2 weeks was helpful in reducing markedly the number of positive agglutination reactions. Further, from 21 pullorum reactors treated, no pullorum organisms were recovered from 17 of the birds. In contrast to this, Gwatkin (1946), after using sulfamerazine in a natural infection among chicks, reports “Twenty-two of the survivors were examined bacteriologically 1 or 2 months later and S. pullorum was . . .

Adult male chickens were fed diets low in linoleic acid, vitamin E and ethoxyquin or high in linoleic acid with or without added vitamin E or ethoxyquin for 25 weeks. Fertilizing capacity and sperm concentration of semen were adversely affected with males fed the high linoleic acid diet without vitamin E or ethoxyquin. The addition of vitamin E or ethoxyquin to the high linoleic acid diet overcame these adverse effects. The low linoleic acid diet without vitamin E and ethoxyquin had no adverse effect on fertilizing capacity and concentration of semen. No differences were evident for males fed any of the diets as far as semen volume, hatchability of fertile eggs, body or testes weights or feed consumption were concerned. During the 26th and 27th weeks increasing the number of sperm inseminated failed to improve fertility of the males fed the diet high in linoleic acid without vitamin E. The results indicate that diets high in linoleic acid but without vitamin E affect fertilizing capac ity as well as the number of sperm produced. Adamstone and Card ( 1) reported testicular degeneration resulting after a vita min E-deficient diet was fed to Rhode Island Red males for a 2-year period. Al though no differences were observed at one year, an adverse effect on fertilizing capacity was noted with a limited number of males after 2 years. More recently Machlin et al. (2) reported adverse effects on fertility as well as egg production of White Leghorn layers fed diets low in vitamin E but containing a high level of linoleic acid. They showed that lowered fertility and egg production were overcome by addition of vitamin E or ethoxyquin to the diet. In the absence of the high level of linoleic acid as well as vitamin E and ethoxyquin no adverse effects on fertility or egg production could be observed during the 6 weeks of their experiment. The relationship of vitamin E to linoleic acid metabolism has been reviewed by Scott (3). Evidence is cited indicating that vitamin E functions as a biological antioxidant that protects against encephalomalacia in chicks by preventing the breakdown of linoleic acid to 12-oxo-cis-9-octadecenoic (keto) acid. Whether or not the same relationship exists with adult poultry has not been established, but the data re ported with layers (2) suggest such a pos sibility. In view of a previous interest in the area of nutrition as related to male fertility (4), the present experiment was undertaken to determine whether linoleic acid would ex ert a detrimental effect on fertilizing ca pacity of adult male chickens fed diets with or without vitamin E or ethoxyquin.

The recovery of virus in a laboratory host system from cells and cellular products and body fluids is the technique upon which our knowledge of natural history of viruses is based. It is unfortunate that the circumstances under which many virus cultures have been isolated do not satisfy criteria which experienced virologists believe to be minimal. These criteria include: 1) Adequate identification of the species from which the virus was derived.

HE earliest isolation of Pasteurella pseudotuberculosis from turkeys in the United States was reported by Rosenwald and Dickinson5 in 1944. These authors found the organism in 10 turkey flocks, primarily during the fall months of 1940 and 1941, usually in birds between 3 and 8 months old. In their studies,of the organism they noted the irregular, slow fermentation of salicin and its inability to change dextrin, which were the main differences from the strain studied by Beaudette.1 The organism did not crossagglutinate with Salmonella pullorum antiserum. Mathey and Siddle4 reported an isolation of P. pseudotuberculosis from a turkey in 1954. The characteristics of their isolate were similar to those of the isolate found by Rosenwald and Dickinson.5

INCE the Oregon Salmonella typhimurium testing program for breeder turkeys was instituted in 1959 on a voluntary basis, 501,285 samples have been tested at this station. Information on the efficacy of the agglutination test in detecting infected birds, the possibility of maintaining a clean flock, and the possibility of obtaining a "non-reactor flock" by retesting an infected flock should be helpful in determining the values and limitations of such a testing program. This report describes some observations on these matters during the past 3 seasons (1959-62).