Abstract
AFTER Pasteur raised his classical question in 1885 about germ-free life1, several investigators attempted to rear chickens under germ-free conditions2–6. The longest of these experiments, conducted in these laboratories, lasted about five months6. We now report the completion of the life-cycle in ‘germ-free' chickens, that is, the successful rearing of chickens to maturity, the production and incubation of fertile eggs and finally the hatching of a young chicken, all in germ-free conditions. This is the second germ-free vertebrate which we have been able to carry through a complete life-cycle ; the first being the albino rat7. (The term ‘germ-free' is used because of historical precedence. It should be taken to mean that the animals are free from demonstrable living microorganisms. In itself the term is confusing because it is obvious that a fertile egg is not germ-free. The question of proper terminology is taken up in some detail in LOBUND Reports No. 2, which is now in the press.)
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References
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Reyniers, J. A., Trexler, P. C., Ervin, R. F., Wagner, M., Luckey, T. D., and Gordon. H. A., LOBUND Reports, 2 (in the press).
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REYNIERS, J., TREXLER, P., ERVIN, R. et al. A Complete Life-Cycle in the "Germ-Free' Bantam Chickèn. Nature 163, 67–68 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163067a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163067a0
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