60 CONTROL SERIES No. 63 



who collected blood samples for the tube test. These operations interfered in no 

 way with those of the whole blood test. All positive or doubtful birds were placed 

 in a bird crate and the negative birds were liberated into the pen. The tester 

 made the incision in the wing vein, transferred the blood with a microscopic slide 

 to the glass plate, making a smear slightlj' thicker than a smear for microscopical 

 study, added the test fluid to the blood film, and recorded the leg band number 

 and the interpretation of the agglutination reaction. The plate was tilted slightly 

 upward and downward which appeared to have a beneficial influence on the agglu- 

 tination phenomenon. The interpretation of the reaction was recorded approx- 

 imately 2 minutes after the blood and test fluid were mixed. The 1:25 dilution 

 and 1 cc. of antigen were employed in the tube method. The results were recorded 

 after incubating the tests at 37 ° C. for 24 hours. 



On December 1, the first test, 220 and 219 birds were tested with the whole 

 blood and the tube tests, respectively. (One blood sample was broken and there- 

 fore could not be tested.) The whole blood test was conducted under quite 

 unsuitable conditions. Dust and feathers frequently interfered with the blood- 

 antigen mixture on the glass plate. Also weather conditions were not the most 







