Effect of exogenous adrenocorticotropic hormone on plasma calcium and bicarbonate concentration in domestic fowl.
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1. The biliary bile acid profiles of domestic chickens (Gallus domesticus), turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), and ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS). 2. Chenodeoxycholyltaurine and cholyltaurine were the predominant bile acids in chicken and turkey bile, whereas duck bile contained primarily chenodeoxycholyltaurine and phocaecholyltaurine. 3. Allocholyltaurine was also detected in chicken and turkey bile, but not in duck bile. 4. FAB-MS analyses of individual HPLC peak fractions from chicken and duck bile extracts confirmed the presence of either taurine-conjugated dihydroxy- or trihydroxycholanoates. 5. Direct FAB-MS analyses of avian bile extracts not subjected to HPLC permitted a rapid assessment of the relative proportion of taurine-conjugated dihydroxy- to trihydroxycholanoates.
The activity of delta5-3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD) in the postovulatory follicle (POF) of the domestic hen was studied; it declined rapidly during the first 15 h after ovulation and then fell gradually until 52 h when there was no detectable activity. Comparison of 3beta-HSD and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities in the theca and granulosa cells indicated that the changes in enzymatic activity can be attributed to the thecal component; the enzyme activity in granulosa cells was stable up to 35 h after ovulation. The results appear consistent with the hypothesis that the POF is a source of steroid hormones.
The apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum has not been much studied from the veterinary standpoint. Although it causes malaria in domesticated chickens, no effective drugs appear to be commercially available. A mixture of trimethoprim and sulphaquinoxaline (TMP/SQX, ratio 1:3), with a wide spectrum of activity against bacteria and coccidia, is here shown to be also efficacious against blood-induced P. gallinaceum malaria when administered therapeutically in the feed of chickens for 5-day periods, beginning on the day before infection, or on the day of infection, or up to four days after infection. Chickens were protected against mortality and reduction of weight gain. Three other criteria of efficacy, which showed good correlation with each other and also with the two commercial performance criteria, were the production of green diarrhoea (due to biliverdin), parasitaemia and reduced haematocrit values. When TMP/SQX treatments were initiated sooner than five days after infection, parasites were almost entirely eliminated from the blood, whereas treatments initiated later than four days after infection failed to protect birds against clinical disease. Birds protected by TMP/SQX against primary infection with P. gallinaceum were immune to clinical malaria when exposed to a severe blood-induced challenge of P. gallinaceum 28 days later.
Circulating inhibin A, inhibin B, activin A, total immunoreactive inhibin alpha-subunit (ir-alpha inhibin), LH, FSH and progesterone concentrations were measured throughout the normal ovulatory cycle and after cessation of egg laying induced by feed restriction to investigate the potential involvement of inhibins and activins in the ovulatory cycle of the domestic hen. Plasma inhibin A varied significantly (P < 0.05) during the ovulatory cycle; the concentration was highest at the preovulatory LH surge and reached a nadir 10 h later, at about the time the F(2) follicle makes the transition to become the new F(1) follicle. Plasma FSH concentrations did not change significantly throughout the cycle and showed no correlation with inhibin A. Total ir-alpha inhibin concentrations were much higher than those of inhibin A at all stages of the ovulatory cycle and showed no correlation with inhibin A or FSH. Plasma concentrations of inhibin B and of activin A were below the detection limit of the assays in all plasma samples analysed. In the feed restriction study, plasma inhibin A and total ir-alpha inhibin showed little change until the last day of oviposition (day 0) after which they fell significantly (P < 0.05) and remained low to the end of the experiment (approximately 70-78% decrease relative to day -4). Conversely, plasma FSH increased after cessation of laying and was significantly higher (P < 0.05) from day 3 to the end of the study (approximately 50% increase on day 6 relative to day -4). Plasma FSH values were negatively correlated with inhibin A (r = -0.39; P < 0.005) and total ir-alpha inhibin (r = -0.36; P < 0.005). Plasma LH and progesterone also decreased (P < 0.05) during feed restriction. The decrease in LH preceded the terminal oviposition and the associated fall in inhibin A by 2 days; there was a positive correlation between LH and inhibin A (r = 0.35; P < 0.005). Taken together these findings support (i) a role for LH in promoting inhibin A secretion by preovulatory follicles and (ii) an endocrine role for inhibin A secreted by preovulatory follicles in the maintenance of tonic FSH secretion in laying hens.
Females often select their mates on the basis of the size or intensity of sexual ornaments, and it is thought that such traits are reliable indicators of male quality because the costliness of these traits prevents cheating. The immunocompetence handicap hypothesis is a recently proposed mechanistic explanation of these costs and states that males carry ornaments at the expense of their resistance to disease and parasites. The tradeoff between immunocompetence and sexual ornamentation was hypothesized to arise as a consequence of the dual effect of androgens on ornamentation (+) and immune function (-). To test this hypothesis, we compared comb size between male domestic chickens Gallus domesticus of lines divergently selected for antibody responses to sheep erythrocytes (three lines: selected for low response or high response and a control line). The importance of comb size in inter- and intrasexual selection is well established, and comb size is strongly dependent on testosterone level. Comb size was larger in the males of the low line than in the high line, and comb size of control males was intermediate, indicating a tradeoff between ornamentation and immunocompetence. Testosterone (T) levels varied in a similar fashion (TLow > TControl > THigh), suggesting that this hormone could mediate the tradeoff between ornamentation and immunocompetence. These results support the idea that a tradeoff with immune function may constrain the expression of secondary sexual ornaments.
Salmonella typhimurium infection occurred in a children's zoo where 11 fowl and 85 mammals were kept. Initially, the guinea pigs were infected and transmitted the infection to the fowl and rabbits. These mammals responded to medication and cleared of the infection; however, the birds were judged to contain excreters despite four regimens of treatment with antibiotics. Cloacal swabs were taken from all the birds. One turkey was positive for Salmonella and was destroyed. Pooled fecal samples from the birds were again positive. All the birds were tested serologically, and two birds, a goose and a turkey, were positive with Salmonella pullorum-gallinarum antigen, which was assumed to be a cross reaction with S. typhimurium antigen. The two birds were destroyed and the goose yielded Salmonella. The infection was finally eradicated, and the serologic examination was considered to be the most useful procedure for detection of the excreters.
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP) activity was identified in lysates of Eimeria maxima sporozoites and E. necatrix sporozoites and merozoites. Pretreatment of cell lysates with DNase I, RNase A, proteinase K and actinomycin D prior to RDRP assay was employed to characterize RDRP activity. DNase I and actinomycin D had little effect, while proteinase K abolished RDRP activity in both species. RNase A at a concentration of 1 mg/ml also reduced the polymerase activity in E. maxima and E. necatrix sporozoite lysates to 2% and 0%, respectively. Gel electrophoresis of RDRP products revealed that while most migrated at sizes less than 3 kb, a proportion of labelled products of E. necatrix and E. maxima also migrated to the sizes of their respective putative viral genomes. The RDRP products of E. necatrix were shown to be single-stranded by digestion with RNase in both low- and high-salt solutions and by methylmercuric hydroxide treatment. Moreover, the RDRP products of E. necatrix only hybridized to the 5.6-kb dsRNA of E. necatrix but not to the 4.5-kb dsRNAs of E. necatrix or E. maxima.
When females are sexually promiscuous, sexual selection continues after insemination through sperm competition and cryptic female choice, and male traits conveying an advantage in competitive fertilization are selected for. Although individual male and ejaculate traits are known to influence paternity in a competitive scenario, multiple mechanisms co-occur and interact to determine paternity. The way in which different traits interact with each other and the mechanisms through which their heritability is maintained despite selection remain unresolved. In the promiscuous fowl, paternity is determined by the number of sperm inseminated into a female, which is mediated by male social dominance, and by the quality of the sperm inseminated, measured as sperm mobility. Here we show that: (i) the number of sperm inseminated determines how many sperm reach the female sperm-storage sites, and that sperm mobility mediates the fertilizing efficiency of inseminated sperm, mainly by determining the rate at which sperm are released from the female storage sites, (ii) like social status, sperm mobility is heritable, and (iii) subdominant males are significantly more likely to have higher sperm mobility than dominant males. This study indicates that although the functions of social status and sperm mobility are highly interdependent, the lack of phenotypic integration of these traits may maintain the variability of male fitness and heritability of fertilizing efficiency.
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Socially housed leghorn cockerels were confined to a heated grid (55, 57, or 59 degrees C, Experiment 1; 59, 61, or 63 degrees C, Experiment 2) and tested at posthatch ages of 14 days (Experiment 1) and 1, 3, 7, or 14 days (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, chicks performed a discrete jump response only at 59 degrees C. In Experiment 2, jump latency was inversely related to temperature at each age but significantly so only at 7 and 14 days posthatch. At the highest temperature, jump latency did not differ significantly across ages. At medium and low temperatures, latency increased from 1 and 3 to 7 days posthatch (antinociceptive effect) and decreased thereafter. Chicks raised in isolation from hatch to 7 days posthatch (Experiment 3) did not display the increased jump latency (antinociceptive effect) displayed by socially raised chicks. Developmental increases in jump latency may reflect stress-induced antinociceptive concomitants of neophobia that emerge with age in this precocial species and social experience may be required for the normal development of this stress-induced antinociception.
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Nuclear and cytoplasmic volume changes as well as the elimination of residual spermatid cytoplasm were investigated in the red-ear turtle (Pseudemys scripta) and the rooster (Gallus domesticus). Nuclei of newly formed spermatids which were originally centrally located became eccentrically located within the cell in both species. Shortly thereafter the nuclear pole of the spermatid was found situated within deep crypts of a Sertoli cell. The cytoplasm of elongating spermatids was displaced along the nonacrosomal region of the nucleus and the proximal flagellum. In both species sheetlike Sertoli cell processes indented spermatid cytoplasm adjacent to the nucleus and appeared to segregate small packets of the cytoplasm. In the turtle, these packets of cytoplasm were separated from the spermatid. In both the turtle and rooster, a portion of the spermatid cytoplasm was displaced forward over the acrosomal region of the spermatid to resemble a hood. As spermatids were transported to the seminiferous tubular lumen, cytoplasmic lobes which projected forward of the spermatid head were formed by preferential flow of cytoplasm into one aspect of the cytoplasmic hood. In both species, at sperm release the cytoplasmic lobe was disengaged from the spermatid head to form a large residual body that was internalized and degraded within the Sertoli cell. Medium-sized cytoplasmic lobes were pinched from the head and neck region of the turtle and rooster spermatids, respectively. In the turtle, small-sized mitochondrial-rich cytoplasmic fragments budded from the caudal head and midpiece of the spermatids and were phagocytosed by the Sertoli cell. Thus, cytoplasmic elimination occurred through 1) segregation of cytoplasmic packets by Sertoli penetrating processes (turtle), 2) elimination of large and medium-sized residual bodies from the head (turtle and bird), and 3) budding of small mitochondrial-rich cytoplasmic fragments from the region of the midpiece (turtle). In the turtle a 79% reduction in total cell volume occurred during spermiogenesis which was the result of an 84% cytoplasmic reduction and a 78% nuclear reduction. During spermiogenesis, the rooster lost 97% of its total cell volume due to a 97% cytoplasmic volume change and a 96% nuclear volume change.
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