A failure to induce heritable changes in four generations of the White Leghorn chicken by inter- and intra-specific blood transfusion

Abstract

1. A three-year study was conducted to test the efficacy of inter- and intra-specific blood transfusions in domestic poultry for inducing heritable changes in the recipients. The latter were pure-bred White Leghorns. Pure-bred Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys and New Hampshire chickens served as blood donors to two distinct lines of recipients. All injections started when the recipient chicks were 2–5 days old. Altogether, more than 3000 chicks from blood injected lines were involved in the study, conducted between 1959 and 1961 and distributed between the parental and three subsequent generations. Each injected chick received a total of some 155 ml. of whole blood in the course of a five-month injection period. An adequate number of control (non-injected) birds was used throughout. Observations were made on plumage colour, body-weight, egg-weight, egg-shell colour, fertility and hatchability. Furthermore, blood plasma and muscle tissue of appropriate birds were subjected to immunological, chromatographic and electrophoretic analyses.2. On the basis of all these criteria, no evidence of heritable shifts in the direction of the donor organism was discerned among birds belonging to either of the two treated lines.