Factors Influencing the Antibody Production of Chickens Injected with a Soluble Antigen1

THE response of mammals to primary and secondary inoculations of anti-gens has been studied by many workers. Burnet and Fenner (1949) in their mono-graph give a good review of the literature on the subject. We know of no study in which quantitative data have been ob-tained for precipitin production following controlled injection procedures. We are reporting our researches which deal with the antibody responses of chickens fol-lowing variations in, 1) the quantity of antigen injected, 2) the number of inocu-lations and 3) the route of injection. Recent studies in our laboratory by Goodman et al. (1951) and Makinodan et al. (1952) have shown the chicken to be an excellent producer of precipitin. The fact that a large percentage of the birds re-spond to antigen injection makes this species well suited for the type of study undertaken. Since beef albumin, a mam-malian antigen was used, it was thought advisable to study the cross-reactions with human albumin. This could give some indication concerning the type of specificity that could be expected from an animal that is very distantly related to both the homologous and heterologous antigens. METHODS AND MATERIALS The chickens, mostly cross-breeds, were obtained from the Poultry Depart