The Pathology of Anaphylactic Shock in Chickens

THE anaphylactic reaction, a condition of hypersensitivity resulting from a reinjection of a homologous antigen, has been the concern of many workers since the phenomenon was discovered in the early part of this century. Many original papers have appeared and immunology books give good reviews of the subject. Anaphylaxis has been produced in a number of vertebrate species including several species of mammals, chickens and pigeons. A condition similar to anaphylaxis or anaphylaxis itself has been observed in reptiles, amphibia and fish. While much work has been published on the pathology of anaphylaxis in mammals, little work has been done on other vertebrate species. It was shown (Makinodan et al., 1952) that the chicken was very susceptible to anaphylactic shock. The authors found a correlation between the amount of circulating antibody and degree of shock when the antigen used for sensitization and challenging was bovine serum albumin. There were various …