%0 Journal Article %A Buxton, A. %T On the Transference of Bacterial Antibodies from the Hen to the Chick %D 1952 %J Microbiology, %V 7 %N 3-4 %P 268-286 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-7-3-4-268 %I Microbiology Society, %X SUMMARY: Agglutinins against Salmonella pullorum and Salm. typhi (strain O 901) were induced in hens by intravenous inoculation with killed suspensions and were transferred to the yolks of their eggs. This transference of antibody continued throughout a laying season of about 280 days, and the relationship between the agglutinin titres of sera and yolks was not close. The titres of yolks seldom rose above 160 even when those in the serum were 2500 and 5120, whereas the agglutinin levels of developing ovules from hens naturally infected with Salm. pullorum were about the same in the related sera. The sera and egg yolks of hens vaccinated with killed Salm. pullorum or infected with Salm. gallinarum contain a non-agglutinating antibody. The titres of nonagglutinating antibody in sera and in related egg yolks were about equal when hens were inoculated intravenously; very little antibody was demonstrable in fresh egg yolks after intramuscular or subcutaneous administration. Hens infected with Salm. gallinarum by the mouth yielded high yolk titres of agglutinating and non-agglutinating antibodies and these titres were maintained at a high level throughout the experimental period of 474 days. The results suggest that some of the antibody in egg yolk is formed in the follicular epithelium of the developing ovule or in the yolk material itself. A passive immunity to Salm. pullorum is transferred from vaccinated hens to their chicks by the egg yolks and antibodies pass from yolk to embryonic serum from about the 11th day of incubation. The titres in the serum of the newly hatched chick are about the same as in the egg yolk before intubation and they decrease rapidly during the first 3 days and have almost disappeared by the 17th day; from the 8th day until the 17th day non-agglutinating antibodies alone are demonstrable. Antibodies are absorbed from the yolk through the vitelline and hepatic portal circulations and little or none is transferred by the yolk stalk and the chick’s intestine. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-7-3-4-268