Electrophoretic Studies on Serum Proteins of Young Germfree,Conventional and Antibiotic Treated Conventional Chickens. ∗

Summary

The effect of feeding procaine penicillin G (50 mg/kg diet) on the electrophoretic pattern of serum of young conventional chickens was studied and compared with data obtained from germfree animals. While the effect of the antibiotic on morphological characteristics of conventional chicken made itself felt after one month, up to the age of 2 1/2 months no differences were seen in the electrophoretic pattern. Both groups showed an equal increase in gamma globulin over the level found in serum of the germfree animal. At 4 months, however, the antibiotic-treated birds showed lower gamma globulin values than the untreated group, though the level was still substantially higher than found in germfree serum.