The present study was conducted to investigate whether or not ammonia was responsible for the increased intestinal protein synthesis in the chicken harbouring the conventional gut microflora. In the presence or absence of the gut microflora, the chicks were allowed free access to a practical diet, to which ammonium bicarbonate was added at 4.2g/kg diet, for 10 days from 7 to 17 days of age, and on the last day rate of liver and intestinal protein synthesis was measured by injecting radioactive phenylalanine through a wing vein. The results indicated that almost no significant effect of ammonia supplementation on protein synthesis of the tissues except for the liver was observed in both germ-free and conventional chicks. Thus, at the dietary level tested, which was considered to reflect the amount of ammonia involved in the entero-hepatic recycling, i. e. released in the gut and absorbed by the host bird, biological significance of the role of ammonia in enhanced protein synthesis of the liver and gut by the association with normal microflora was not substantiated.

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The role of progesterone in the maintenance of the cellular integrity of the follicular wall was examined in this study. Hypophysectomized hens were injected with progesterone or its vehicle, and the structural changes of the follicular wall were observed by electron microscopy. Within 15 h after hypophysectomy, distinct structural changes were observed in the granulosa and theca layers: 1) granulosa cells were shrunken and separated, and their endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria were swollen; 2) thecal interstitial cells contained an increased number of lipid droplets and vacuoles, and 3) the thecal fibroblasts contained swollen rough endoplasmic reticulum and increased their cytoplasmic density. Injection of hypophysectomized birds with 15mg progesterone prevented the occurrence of these structural changes in granulosa cells, thecal interstitial cells and fibroblasts. We suggest that progesterone is one of the factors that regulates basic cellular functions of growing follicles.

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Nitrogen utilization (N retention/N intake), excretion of nitrogenous compounds and blood urea concentration were compared between adult cockerels fed on a 5% protein diet and a 5% protein diet plus urea. The intake of protein nitrogen and urea nitrogen was 280mg each per kg body weight per day.
Feeding of urea did not affect total introgen excretion, and in consequence significantly increased nitrogen utilization to about 3 times (P<0.01).
Excretion of uric acid and urea was not changed but excretory ammonia significantly increased by feeding of urea (P<0.05).
Blood urea concentration rose sharply up to the top level of about 35 mg per 100ml at 6hr after feeding of urea, then decreased rapidly to 9hr, thereafter gradually.
The results indirectly support that dietary urea is utilized possibly through nitrogen recycling system involving cecum when a low protein diet is fed to adult cockerels.

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Using two lines of chicken, 52 line originated from White Cornish and WL-B line originated from White Leghorn, we examined DNA fingerprints probed with five chemically synthesized repetitive sequences (M13, YNZ22, mo-1, 33.15 and alpha-globin) comparing with that probed with M13 phage repetitive sequence. To make each probe, an oligonucleotide of each repetitive unit less than 20 bases was syn-thesized using a DNA synthesizer with a complementary oligonucleotide, and after phosphorylation they were annealed and ligated. The ligated DNA fragment was amplyfied by PCR using the oligonucleotides as primers. The amplyfied DNA frag-ments are from 0.5 to 20kbp. DNA fingerprints probed with three repetitive sequences of YNZ22, mo-1 and alphaglobin showed clear and well separated numerous bands as well as that probed with M13 phage repetitive sequence. Since the number of bands clearly detectable are increased up to 393 as a total, it is possible to make a linkage analysis between these markers and some qualitative or quantitative traits. DNA fingerprints probed with the repetitive sequence revealed a characteristic pattern in each chicken and in line, indicating that the method described here was useful for parentage analysis and for elucidaing of the genetic structure of a chicken strain.

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An investigation was performed on a method for detecting abnormalities in central nervous system, viscera and skeletons in chicken embryos. The examination of the nervous system and viscera was performed on embryos that had been fixed with BOUIN's solution for more than a week, basically accoding to the methods of WILSON (1965) or BARROW & TAYLOR (1969) designed for mammalian fetuses, but with occasional modifications when required. As a result, the present procedure proved to be an excellent method. When 6-aminonicotinamide was injected into yolk sac, hypoplasia of the heart in one case, hypoplasia of the left hepatic lobe in another case were found, indicating the effectiveness of this method as a teratological test.
To examine the skeleton, embryos fixed with ethanol were skinned, defatted in acetone, cleared with 1% aqueous KOH containing 0.1% H₂O₂, and stained with alizarin red S. As a result, good stained specimens were obtained. Skeletal specimens were also prepared from 6-aminonicotinamide-treated embryos. These specimens revealed fused cervical vertebrae, fused lumbosacral vertebrae, delayed ossification of the caudal vertebrae, uncinate process, sternebrae, and digitus manus bones. These findings indicate that this method can serve as a useful teratological test.

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FRAPS (1942) has first suggested, from the occurrence of premature ovulation resulted in the occurrence of premature oviposition, that there is a close relationship between oviposition and ovulation. The contraction of the uterine muscle which plays a main role in the expulsion of an egg from the uterus is observed whenever ovulation occurs regardless of the presence or the absence of an egg in the uterus (SHIMADA and ASAI, 1978). The retained egg in the uterus by the short term vaginal ligation is expelled from the uterus in association with ovulation (NAKADA and TANAKA, 1990). These results adduce some additional evidence suggesting that the ovulation process participates in the regulation of oviposition. A presumption evolves that the time of midsequence oviposition which is commonly accompanied by the next ovulation may be delayed by preventing ovulation in hens. This study was made to examine the influence of removal of the anterior pituitary gland on the time of mid-sequence oviposition in the domestic fowl.

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Plasma levels of thyroxine (T4), total proteins, albumin and transthyretin (T4-binding prealbumin) were determined in chick embryos at 19 days of incubation. There were significant sex differences (P<0.05) in plasma levels of T4 and total proteins. A highly significant positive correlation between plasma levels of T4 and albumin (r=0.55, P<0.001, n=42) was found; this suggests that plasma albumin level may be a useful parameter to evaluate thyroid function in the chick embryo. Moreover it was confirmed that both albumin and transthyretin were major T4-binding proteins in chick embryos as well as in growing chickens.

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[in Japanese]

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