Absence of Breed Differences in Bactericidal Power of Blood Plasma of Chickens over Salmonella Pullorum

Abstract

HUTT and Scholes (1941) have shown that adult White Leghorns are significantly more resistant to pullorum disease than are the adults of heavier breeds such as Rhode Island Reds, Wyandottes, and Barred Plymouth Rocks. Furthermore, they showed that newly-hatched White Leghorn chicks display a greater resistance to pullorum disease than do chicks of the Rhode Island Red and Barred Plymouth Rock breeds. This resistance is undoubtedly accompanied by some physiological or morphological phenomenon which the White Leghorn breed possesses to a greater degree than the heavy breeds.Schnetzler and Hartsell (1940) have reported that adult White Leghorns and Rhode Islands Reds differ in the bactericidal power of the sera of their blood. They found that the more resistant Leghorns had greater bactericidal power and suggested that this greater bactericidal action on the part of the sera of the White Leghorn fowl might account, at least in part, for the greater .