Chicken Blood Volume: The Hematocrit and Comparison of I131 and Evans Blue Methods

INTRODUCTION BLOOD volumes of mammals have been studied much more extensively than blood volumes of birds, therefore the procedures used for mammalian blood volume determinations can be expected to serve as a basis for improvement in avian blood volume determinations. In poultry research, determination of trapped plasma in the hematocrit, the effect of blood removal during sampling on the hematocrit and absorption curves, and the use of radioactive tracers for blood volume studies have received little attention or have been neglected completely. The objectives of the present work were th adapt the radioactive tracer (I131) technique of mammalian blood-volume determination for use with chicken blood volume. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD Blood Hematocrit and Trapped Plasma Determination. Radio-iodinated (I131) serum albumin (human) was injected into brachial vein of 8-week-old male Arbor Acre White Rock chickens and allowed to mix with circulating blood for 10 min. before a 1 mL sample was removed from the