The present experiment was designed to compare the effects of thiamine chloride hydrochloride (B-HCL) and its derivatives, thiamine propyldisulfide (TPD), thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryldisulfide (TTFD) in chickens.
The first experiment was performed to examine the replacing possibility of thiamine derivatives to thiamine in the test of body weight, egg laying ability, fertility ratio and hatchability as well as to examine thiamine content transported into egg and liver.
Generally speaking, better results were obtained in the use of thiamine derivatives than that of thiamine, and this tendency was most remarkable in the case of thiamine propyldisulfide. With respect to the transportation of thiamine into egg and liver, no difference was found among trials in case of egg, but thiamine volume decreased in all trials. In case of liver, thiamine content was less in the derivatives trial than in thiamine trial.
The second experiment was performed to examine the influence of thiamine propyl disulfide added to the diet of mother chickens on the growth of chicks. Female chickens that were fed on the standard diet into which various levels of thiamine derivatives added (1mg, 5mg, 5mg/kg: increased by every other week) were inseminated to male chickens that were fed on the standard diet. The growth of chicks was compared from day old to four weeks.
Chicks hatched from 5mg group showed better growth than that of other groups. Unfavorable influence was not found in case of an excessive addition of thiamine derivatives.

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Five experiments at 4 local experiment stations in 1965 and 4 experiments at the same stations in 1966 were carried out to find the minimum level of sulphur amino acids in broiler finisher diet under the similar exmerimental design. In all the experiments, 2 types of basal diet were manufactured in a commercial feed mill. One type of basal diet contained 5% of fish meal and shown as F-O diet, and the other was all plant basal diet shown as S-O diet. In each experiment stations, 0, 0.1 or 0.2% of DL-methionine was supplemented to either F-O diet or S-O diet to prepare the experimental broiler fisher diets of various sulphur amino acids levels. Methionine and cystine contents of these two basal diets were determined microbiologically.
Since heamorage was observed among the chicks in Aichi and Okayama Prefectural Poultry Experiment Stations in 1965, and hence vitamin K deficiency in the diet was suspected, the experiments _??_ repeated in 1966 with the similar experimental diets fortified with vitamine K.
Four-week-old chicks of broiler-type cross-bred were reared on the experimental diet for 6 weeks in all the experiments. No statistically significant difference was observed in the performance of the chicks, that is growth rate, feed conversion (feed/gain) and ratios of ready-to-cook and chicken meat, between the chicks on the broiler finisher with and without additional DL-menthionine. Therefore, the minimum requirement of sulhpur amino acids for broiler-type chicks after 4 weeks of age will be not more than the level of sulphur amino acids in the S-O diet, which contained 0.32% of L-cystine and 0.29% of L-methionine, thus 0.61% of sulphur amino acids.

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Starch-gel electrophoretic patterns of the egg white proteins of the Silky fowl, Formosan native fowl, White Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens were compared.
In the Silky fowl, the electrophoretic pattern was similar to those in White Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock chicken. However, two additional bands were detected. One appeared in the conalbumin region with approximately the same staining intensity but slower mobility than Band No. 17 of Lush (1961). Another migrated a little faster but more narrow than Band No. 18.
In the Formosan native fowl, the protein band corresponding to Band No. 18 was not detected.

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During the breeding season, the male quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) exhibits, as is well known, such puzzling sexual characteristics as extrusion of a frothy white fluid from the anus and swelling of the dorsal wall of the cloaca. In the present paper, these characteristics of the male quail were studied macroscopically and microscopically.
In the breeding male, the mucosa of the cloaca was slightly protruded on the cloacal surface from the opening of the bursa fabricius to the dorsal lip of the cloaca. In this mucosal protrusion, there was located a well-developed gland, which was named the cloacal gland by COIL AND WETHERBEE (1959). The gland consisted of agregates of small glands which were separated from one another by a thin septum of connective tissue rich in elastic fibers. The individual gland was like a long sack and opened directly into the cloaca with a small papilla. The gland was lined by a single layer of tall columnal cells with a round nucleus near the basis. The lumen of the gland was enlarged, showing complicated epithelial folds. The cytoplasm of the glandular cell contained a large number of secretion droplets and appeared somewhat light. The gland was a mucous one in function, because the droplets in the cytoplasm, as well as secretions in the lumen, were readily stained with such mucin stains as alcian blue, aldehyde fuchsin, and periodic acid-Schiff. The frothy fluid from the cloaca was actually originated from this cloacal gland.
The development and secretion of the gland, however, depended on the sex and sexual maturity of the individual bird. In the bird after hatching, the gland was of slightly convoluted tubular form and located sparsely in the mucosa. Thereafter, it developed slowly, regardless of sex difference, until sexual maturity was reached. In the breeding season, the gland of male abruptly became hypertrophic and functional, while that of the female remained unchanged. When the sexual activity was declined, the gland of the male became atrophic proportionally. These observations suggest that the cloacal gland may be under the control of testicular hormones in the male.
In the breeding male, an arc-shaped, reddish swelling on the dorsal cloacal wall was formed by a local thickening of the circular muscle around the cloaca, just dorsal to the gland. The swelling, or the thickening of the muscle, disappeared in accordance with a decline in sexual activity. Such thickening of the muscle was not presented in the breeding female. This suggests that the development of the sphincter muscle of the cloaca may also be under the control of testicular hormones, as the cloacal gland is. The development of the circular muscle appears to be related to the discharge and frothing of secretions from the cloacal gland. Namely, the thickened muscle may act on the underlying cloacal gland in such a manner as to squeeze out the secretions of the gland into the cloaca by its strong constriction, which may also cause the secretions frothy.

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In the previous study, it was morphologically observed that the cloacal gland of the male quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) was characteristic one showing a striking development at the time of sexual maturity. The gland was a mucin-secreting one in function. In the present paper, the nature of the mucin secreted by the cloacal gland was studied histochemically, by using various methods for detection of mucopolysaccharides.
The droplets of the glandular cell and the secretions in the glandular lumen were periodic acid-Schiff reactive and azure A-metachromatic at a low value of pH, and showed strong affinities to various acid mucin stains, such as alcian blue, aldehyde fuchsin, and colloidal iron. Alcianophilia and azurophilia disappeared completely from the materials by methylation, but they were relatively well recovered by saponification following the methylation. The materials were negative or slightly positive for the ninhydrine-Schiff and mercuric bromphenol reactions for protein. Neither diastase test for glycogen nor sialidase test for sialic acid was effective. Hyaluronidase somewhat deprived such characters as alcianophilia and azurophilia from the materials. In this case, hyaluronidase seemed to act on chondroitin sulfate A or C rather than hyaluronic acid. From these histochemical results, it was concluded that the secretions of the cloacal gland were generally compounds of sulfated and nonsulfated mucopolysaccharides.
Acid mucin of the gland, however, varied somewhat in composition depending upon the difference of sex and sexual activity of the bird. In the breeding male, in which the cloacal gland was strikingly hypertrophic and active in function, the secretions showed chiefly the nature of sulfated mucopolysaccharides. In the nonbreeding male, in which the gland was atrophic and inactive, the secretions showed chiefly the nature of nonsulfated mucopolysaccharides. In the female, the gland did not changed in structure according to the sexual activity, and its secretions constantly showed chiefly the nature of nonsulfated mucopolysaccharides, as in the nonbreeding male.
These chemical characteristics of the secretions in the breeding male are probably responsible for the formation of frothing secretions, in addition to the hypertrophy of the gland and constriction of the thickened circular muscle of the cloaca which were considered in the previous paper as factors causing frothing secretions.

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The authors reported previously that, in the hybrids between Rhode Island Red males and Phode Island White females, the female chicks hatched earlier than the males. The present experiments were carried out in two different poultry farms in order to demonstrate the distribution of hatching times in several breeds of chickens and in their crosses. Two experiments were conducted. One was done for White Leghorns and the reciprocal crosses of White Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock. Another was done for the hybrids between Rhode Island Red male and Rhode Island White female and for Kimber Strain chicks and White Leghorns. Time of hatch was recorded at 2 or 3 hour intervals. Sexing was made either by machine or visually. The results are:
1) The relationship between the hatching time and the sex-ratio differs among different breeds or crosses.
2) The hatching time in the female is generally earlier than in the male.
3) The distribution of the hatching times may not be related to the season or to the age of parents, when no remarkable relation was found between the hatching time and the sex-ratio.

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The weights of the bursa of Fabricius and spleen of a strain of chicks resistant to Salmonella pullorum were compared with those of a susceptible one and the relationships of bursa and spleen weights to antibody production were investigated.
No significant differences of bursa weights between these strains were detectable at hatching and 2 weeks of age. Larger spleens were shown at hatching in the resistant strain, but at 2 weeks of age in the susceptible strain. There were no relationships of the weight of the bursa and spleen to antibody titers and also no difference in antibody titers between the two strains. These results suggest that bursa and spleen weights are not related to susceptibility to Salmonella pullorum.

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