Chicken blood plasma esterase wsre separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the esterase zymograms were demonstrated by histochemical method, to research the effects of physiological change during egg-laying and of starvation and of injection of sexual hormones, upon esterase activity, and the effect of orally given 50×10⁴ E. tenella on total activity of non-specific esterase and aliesterase in blood plasma were investigated. The buffer system for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was prepared by LUSH'S alkaline buffer system in which the gel buffer contained citric acid (0.005M) and tris (0.076M), and the electrode buffer which contained boric acid (0.3M) and NaOH (0.1M). The electric separation was carried out for 3 hours at 4°C refrigerator with 80-150 volts. The esterase on the polyacrylamide gel were stained with α-naphthyl acetate as substrate and fast blue RR salt as dyecupler. EDTA, eserine and cupric sulfate were used as inhibitors.
1. Eight or nine esterase zones were detected by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of chicken blood plasma. Individual variations among these esterases were observed in different electrophoretic zones.
2. Bands were named with numerical letters from anode to origin. In which, No. III and No. IV bands were specially examined and blood plasma esterase were classified into 4 phenotypes, III, IV, III-IV and O type.
3. Red cell esterases were divided into five zones. No individual difference was recognized.
4. The characteristics of blood plasma esterase were determined to be aliesterase (E.C. 3. 1.1.1. carboxyl esterase).
5. When egg-laying hens were starved, the esterase activities increased. When estradiol benzoate was injected intramuscularly into non-laying hens and cocks, their blood plasma esterase activities decreased; while egg-laying hens were injected with teststerone, their esterase activities increased highly.
6. When E. tenella was injected at the dose of 50×10⁴, the III and IV bands disappeared for a short time, and total plasma esterase activities decreased.

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In this country hydrocarbon yeast is expected to play an important role as a source of protein for poultry feed in the future. It can be produced on a large scale and made from n-paraffin used as a primary growth substrate.
Two lots of hydrocarbon yeast for these experiments contained 8.0 and 9.6% nitrogen respectively. The amino acid composion of the samples tested are low in methionine, arginine and phenylalanine, and high in lysine.
The purpose of this experiments was conducted to determine which essential amino acid are most limiting in a ration containing 20% hydrocarbon yeast protein.
In Experiment I methionine was found to be most limiting amino acid in hydrocarbon chick ration followed by arginine and then phenylalanine. The phenylalanine level appeared to be submarginal.
In Experiment II the unsupplemented control diet gave 57% of the gain of the amino acid supplemented control and the feed conversion was considerably higher. The addition of arginine resulted in significantly better gain than the unsupplemented control and same feed conversion. Arginine and methionine added together showed no improvement in weight over methionine addition alone.
Soybean meal diet resulted in a significantly better gain than hydrocarbon yeast diet supplemented with amino acid mixture.

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In the present study, alkaline phosphatase isozyme of serum in Japanese quail was analyzed electrophoretically; and the relations among alkaline phosphatase activity, thyroidal function and sex hormone were examined.
The results are summarized as follows:
1) It was found that alkaline phosphatase activity (total activity) of serum in immature Japanese quail was higher than that of mature ones. In the male it continued to decrease with advancing age until 8 weeks of age and afterward it maintained a low activity in maturity. In the female it decreased with advancing age until 6 weeks of age; but at 7 weeks of age when the female reached the stage of egg-laying, serum alkaline phosphatase of the female increased somewhat and thereafter it declined again consistently. The activity of the female is slightly higher than that of the male at the mature stage.
2) By means of agar-gel electrophoresis, serum alkaline phosphatase of Japanese quail was separated into two polymorphic regions, and it was found that there existed Fpattern appearing in the fast mobility region (Akp-1) and A, B and C-pattern in the slow mobility region (Akp-2) on the anode side.
3) From the result of a comparative study on activities of the abovementioned patterns at each week, it was found that the activity of each pattern was higher in immature quail than in mature ones. Further, at the stage of sexual maturity, the activity of F-pattern of the female was higher than that of the male. These results suggest that the aforsaid difference between the male and female on alkaline phosphatase activity (total activity) at the mature stage is caused by the difference in F-pattern activity between the male and female.
4) To elucidate the endocrine control of serum alkaline phosphatase isozyme pattern in the Japanese quail, the present authors undertook the experiments of administration of L-thyroxine, feeding of thiouracil, gonadectomy and administration of sex hormones. As a result, it is suggested that alkaline phophatase activity at the immature stage is resulted to thyroidal function and that F-pattern activity of the female at the adult stage is controlled by estrogen.

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Successive full-sib matings of Japanese quail were originated from forty pairs of twenty eight lines obtained by crossing males introduced from a quail-breeder in Toyohashi to random bred females propagated in our Laboratory. The inbred populations were reproduced by five hatches of five week's eggs layed by the parental quails when they were nine to twelve weeks of age. Those hatched birds were pooled and paired for full-sib mating. Inbreeding depressions of various characters were studied by weighted regression, and the genetic load was estimated.
1) Regression coefficients for both fertility and hatchability on inbreeding coefficient were nagative and significant. Tendencies of depression in viability up to four weeks of age, sexual maturity, body weight at sixteen weeks, egg production to sixteen weeks and egg weight at thirteen weeks were observed, but the regression coefficients were not significant because of small degrees of freedom.
2) Owing to severe inbreeding depression, successive full-sib matings were encountered with serious difficulty of reproduction by the fifth generation.
3) The estimated number of lethal equivalents per bird for fertility, hatchability and viability to four weeks were 1.0, 2.5, and 1.5, respectively. Therefore, the total number of detrimentals for each quil was 4.9. Those value estimated in the inbred lines of S, H, M and J were 2.3, 13.0, 24.3 and 10.6, respectively. The differences in the lethal equivalents among those inbred lines were not significant. It is suggested that the genes responsible for the detrimental load in the quail have overdominant effects, since the ratio B/A is relatively low (3.2).

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The effects of the administration of L-thyroxine or methimazole to 4-week-old cockerels, and estradiol benzoate to 7-month-old cocks on the zymograms of the plasma alkaline phosphatase isozymes were studied.
Horizontal polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was perfomed. Alkaline Phosphatase isozymes of chicken plasma were detected using β-naphtyl acid phosphate as a substrate, and First Violet B salt as a dyecoupler.
The administration of either L-thyroxine or estradiol benzoate for 4 days significantly increased the plasma alkaline phosphatase level, whereas the feeding of 0.05% methimazole in diet for 7 days significantly decreased the activity. The densitometric ratio between the two electrophoretic bands observed either in fast moving type or slow moving type of the isozyme did not show any change after the administration of L-thyroxine, methimazole or estradiol benzoate (Table 3, Fig. 1).
While the electrophoretic bands of alkaline phosphatase of the chicken plasma were always observed, the inherent variations in the densitometric ratio between the two bands were observed.

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Mainly for use on high-speed computer, a method of calculating coefficients of inbreeding and relationship is proposed as the one where all the procedures can be proceeded by perfectly mechanistic operations and judgements. This method is preferrable to the path method widely in use in animal and poultry breeding, even when the coefficients are to be calculated by hand, if the pedigrees are so complicated that mistakes might occur in picking up common ancestors and relevant connecting paths on the diagram.
A pedigree line is defined here as the record of a series of ancestors appearing in the process of tracing the pedigree of any individual, say I, back to one ancestor of his, provided that the line include the individual I himself as the first entry. By the pedigree lines for I are meant all the pedigree lines obtained for I by tracing back to each of all the ancestors of a certain number of generations earlier. Comparison of pedigree lines is defined as an operation of comparing one pedigree line for I and one for J and judging if there appears any same individual on the two lines compared. When such individual appears, it be recorded as a common ancestor for I and J, provided that, if more than one of such individuals appear in one comparison, only the one nearest to I and J be recorded. Comparison of pedigree lines between I and J means comparison of pedigree lines for I and those for J in all possible combinations.
The inbreeding coefficient for individual X be calculated by the following formula after making comparison of pedigree lines between the sire and the dam of X:
F_X=(1/2)^n+n'+1∑ik_i(1+F_Ai),
where n and n' are the number of generations over which the sire's and dam's pedigrees trace back, and k_i is the number of times common ancestor A_i was recorded in the comparison of pedigree lines.
The coefficient of relationship between X and Y be calculated by the following formula after making comparison of pedigree lines between X and Y:
R_XY=(1/2)^n+n'∑ik_i(1+F_Ai)/√(1+F_X)(1+F_Y)
where n and n' are the number of generations over whicn the pedigrees of X and Y trace back, and k_i is the number of times common ancestor A_i was recorded in the comparison of pedigree lines.
A few examples of application are given. Brief comments on the nature of the method and on some practical problems which may occur in the use of the method on high-speed computers are also given.

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[in Japanese]

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Electrophoretic variations in albumin were studied in the blood plasma of the chicken. A synthetic breed mainly originated from White Leghorn and White Cornish X White Plymouth Rock hybrids were used. The starch gel electrophoretic procedure used was that described by LUSH (1964) for chicken egg white proteins.
Three albumin types were observed in the plasma of White Cornish X White Plymouth Rock hybrids. The three types wer ecoded Alb A, Alb AB and Alb B. Alb A was characterized by a distinct zone which was accompanied by two zones, one in front of the mian zone and the other behind. Alb B had the same pattern as Alb A except the zones had different migration rates. The migration rate of the main zone of Alb A coincided with that of the leading zone of Alb B. The migration rate of the main zone in Alb B coincided with that of the tailing zone in Alb A. Alb AB had the two distinct zones and the two faint zones.
The 248 hybrid chicken plasma which were examined included 229 Alb A, 17 Alb AB, and 2 Alb B type. The plasma of 68 White Leghorns were monomorphic and were classified as Alb A.

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The experiment reported here was conducted to investigate the relationship between the parasite antigenicity in various stages in the life cycle of E. tenella and the serum antibody in immune chicken, and whether the common antigens are present between E. tenella and E. acervulina or not, using the direct fluorescent antibody technique.
Serum γ-globulin from immune chickens which subjected to several times of inoculations with oocysts of E. tenella was conjugated with fluorescence isothiocyanate, modificating of the technique originally introduced by Coons et. al. (1942). This fluorescein-labeled γ-globulin was applied to slides with parasite smears in various stages of both E. tenella and E. acervulina, followed by examination through a fluorescence microscope.
When the sporozoite, merozoite, schizont and gametocyte of E. tenella were exposed to the ultra-violet light, the uniform distribution of specific yellow-green fluorescence were observed, but not for the oocyst and sporocyst. The intensity of fluorescence seemed to be stronger in the schizont than in other stages.
In contrast, no specific fluorescence was observed on the parasites in various stages of E. acervulina. This suggests that there are different antigens between E. tenella and E. acervulina, originated in the surface of those parasites.

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