NEUROLYMPHOMATOSIS 9 



This experiment indicates that the causative agent in lympholeukosis is 

 associated with a particular type of lymphoblast which may be distinguished 

 from the lymphoblasts normally occurring in the blood by appropriate staining 

 to bring out the arrangement of the chromatin material of the nucleus. This 

 type of cell may be found in the liver, spleen, and portal blood of diseased 

 chickens. Also, lympholeukosis may be transmitted to healthy susceptible 

 chickens by inoculating portal blood containing large numbers of these living 

 cells directly into the blood or abdominal cavity. If a virus is involved in 

 lympholeukosis these experiments failed to indicate its presence. 



NEUROLYMPHOMATOSIS 



In a previous bulletin, Gibbs (1934) showed that neurolymphomatosis could 

 not be transmitted by inoculating crushed nerve tumors into susceptible fowls 

 and chickens. These experiments have been repeated with some modifications. 

 In the work reported in this bulletin, the cells were squeezed out of diseased 

 nerves into sterile physiological saline solution and a portion of them stained 

 with trypan blue just before inoculation. If the neurolymphomatous cells 

 took up the stain they were rejected as not being viable, but if they resisted 

 the stain they were immediately inoculated into the birds chosen for the ex- 

 periments. Whether the cells were living or dead was not deemed important 

 in previous work, as it was thought that the disease might be due to a virus. 

 But since no evidence of a virus could be found, an attempt was made to 

 implicate the neurolymphomatous cells as the causative agent in this disease. 



Table 6. — Chickens Developing Neurolymphomatosis after 

 Inoculation with Trypan -Blue-Resistant Neurolymphomatous Cells 



First, 100 healthy two-weeks-old chickens that had never been exposed to 

 neurolymphomatosis were inoculated in the nervous system with trypan-blue- 

 resistant cells. In 50 the sciatic nerve was selected as the site of inoculation, 

 and the wing nerve was used in the remaining 50 chickens. Fifteen of the 

 chickens inoculated in the sciatic nerve showed paralysis of the leg on the side 

 inoculated, and nine of the chickens inoculated in the wing nerves developed 

 typical symptoms and lesions of neurolymphomatosis. In every case the neuro- 

 lymphomas were found distally to the site of inoculation. The greater number 



