Studies on Incubator Hygiene V

SINCE Salmonella pullorum has been frequently incriminated as a cause of low fertility and hatchability of eggs, it has been considered possible that other microorganisms which have been isolated from eggs or oviducts might have a similar injurious effect upon hatchability of eggs. Experiments at the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station have, therefore, been conducted to determine the effect of inoculating eggs with suspensions of the following microorganisms: Salmonella pullorum, Salmonella aertrycke, Salmonella gallinarum, Pasteurella avicida, two strains of staphylococci isolated from eggs of apparently healthy hens and three strains of streptococci isolated from eggs of apparently healthy hens. TECHNIC EMPLOYED All eggs 1 used in these studies were purchased from a flock that had been pullorum tested over a period of several years, but it is not assumed that all eggs were free from S. pullorum. Each setting of eggs was divided into either three or five groups. When the three-group . . .