The chick comb response to androgen in inbred brown leghorns

During the senior author’s tenure of a Fulbright Research Scholarship, Doctor Greenwood had available at the Poultry Research Centre several inbred lines of Brown Leghorns (Greenwood and Btyth, 1951; Blyth, 1952). These lines appeared desirable for detecting differences in hormone production and response as well as the relation of the endocrine system to the expression of hybrid vigor in growth rate and egg production. This report is concerned with the variability in response of the baby chick’s comb to testosterone propionate. the androgenic comb response Fussganger (1934) emphasized the small differences in androgenic potency which could be measured by external application of the hormone to the comb of the capon. Ruzicka (1935) was probably the first to suggest that the baby chick comb response be used as an assay for androgens. Since that time there have been many research reports concerned with the possibility of the chick-comb response as a sensitive assay for androgenic potency of unknown solutions....