26 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 337 



Only one chicken from these matings showed symptoms and lesions of neuro- 

 lymphomatosis and that resulted from the mating of hen VQ-1988 with rooster 

 VQ-1994. The symptoms appeared 150 days after the chicken hatched. 



The testes of rooster VQ-2214 were involved, but the chickens produced 

 by mating to hen VQ-1877 did not develop neurolymphomatosis. The results 

 indicate that neurolymphomatosis may have been transmitted through the egg 

 to one chicken by rooster VQ-1994; but since rooster VQ-2214 failed to trans- 

 mit the disease, the evidence is not as conclusive as it probably would have been 

 if a larger group of birds had been used in the experiment. 



Hen VQ-1987 began to moult and ceased to lay on the tenth day of the ex- 

 periment. A week later neurolymphomatous cells appeared in the follicular 

 fluid and remained for two months or until no more fluid could be obtained for 

 examination. Before the moult occurred this hen laid six eggs from which five 

 healthy chickens hatched. Necropsy revealed infiltration of the coeliac plexus 

 and ovary. Probably this bird was thrown out of production by a moult before 

 the conditions were favorable for the transmission of the disease through the 

 egg; and since the disease is progressive, the infiltration continued until the 

 ovary was completely involved and was therefore unable to function when the 

 hen had finished moulting. 



In Mating 3 the hatchability was 77.42 percent, and the percentage of neuro- 

 lymphomatosis 2.08. 



Table 14. — The Transmission of Neurolymphomatosis through the Egg 



Mating 4. Controls — no pathological cells in seminal or follicular fluids. 



Hens: 



VQ-1919 None 



VQ-1920 None 



E-1025 Left ciliary, ovary 



Roosters: 



VQ-1875 None 



VQ-1874 None 



O-1063 Left ciliary 



The first two matings, VQ-1919 x VQ-1875, and VQ-1920 x VQ-1874, pro- 

 duced 89 eggs from which 80 healthy chickens were hatched. 



