The blastodermal embryos of Japanese quail from freshly laid eggs were cultured to hatch in chicken egg shells with the blunt end removed.
The culture was conducted using three methods. In method 1, the entire contents of a freshly laid egg were transferred into a chicken egg shell. In method 2, one ml of chicken thin albumen was added after transfer of the entire egg contents. In method 3, the egg yolk was transferred into a chicken egg shell containing about 30 ml of chicken thin albumen. Volume of chicken thin albmen was adjusted to about 8 ml after 2.5 days of culture. The rates of hatching of the cultured embryos were 17.6%, 13.5% and 11.4% for methods 1, 2 and 3, respectively. In all methods the viability of embryos decreased after 14 days of culture. About half of hatchlings had physical troubles in legs and died within one week after hatching. But remaining half grew normally to adults. Method 1 showed the highest hatchability among the three methods and its procedure was simple, but many abnormal embryos were observed. In method 3, there was no abnormal embryo but the hatchability was low.
The present study shows that it is possible to culture the blastodermal embryos of Japanese quail to hatch using chicken egg shells as culture vessels.

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To survey the characteristics of the intestinal development of the waterfowls and chickers, the weight, length and surface area of different parts of inttestine in Pekin duck, mallard, and broiler and White Leghorn chickens were measured on 6 and 20 weeks of age.
In all measurements of the intestinal weight, length and surface area, Pekin duck and broiler chicken showed higher values on either 6 or 20 weeks, which agreed with the higher feed intake and growth rate of the two birds. As comparing the values of 6 and 20 weeks, little difference was found in Pekin duck, mallard and broiler chicken, which indicates that the development of the intestine is earlier in these species. This result also agreed with the fact that these birds grow fast in the earlier stage. The White Leghorn chicken showed small values in all measurements on 6 weeks, but on 20 weeks the values of all measurements increased in large extent. This marked change in the intestinal size may explain the fast increase of the body weight of the White Leghorn chicken between 6 and 20 weeks.
The results of the present study suggest that the characteristic of the intestinal development in the birds is closely related to the growth rate rather than to the bird species.

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Some hematological differences between dwarf (Gifu 20 line) and normal (Gifu 15 line) chickens were studied during the period of growth from 1 to 30 weeks of age. Erythrocyte counts, hematocrits and hemoglobin concentrations were mostly significantly higher for dwarf than for normal chickens. This paradoxical increase appeared to be related with hormonal status in the dwarf chicken.

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It was previously demonstrated that when the genomic DNA of the chicken was digested with restriction enzyme, XhoI, and analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis with ethidium bromide as a staining agent, a DNA fragment of about 0.7 kbp was detected specifically in the female (KAGAMI and TOMITA, 1990). In the present study, the W chromosome-specific DNA probe was found to hybridize with the initially detected female specific DNA fragment mentioned above.
Consequently, it was concluded that the initially detected female specific DNA fragment of about 0.7 kbp was homologous to the W chromosome-specific DNA probe.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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