[Study of anemia in spirochetosis of poultry by means of radioactive iron].

Radioactive iron was used to follow up some hematologic indices in birds infected with irradiated spirochetes of the Borrelia anderina species. Used were a total of 90 cockerels, aged two months, divided into three groups. Ist group - cockerels inoculated with spirochetes that had been gamma-irradiated at the rate of 40000 R; IInd group-cockerels inoculated with untreated spirochetes; and IIIrd group - normal cockerels. The infective material consisted of strain Rouen spirochetes of the Pamoukchii serotype. Radiometric studies were also carried out to find out to what extent radioactive iron was incorporated in the erythrocytes and was deposited in the liver, spleen, and marrow of the investigated birds. Classical methods of investigation were employed to determine the erythrocyte, leukocyte, and thrombocyte counts, the hemoglobin content (after Sahli) as well as the erythrocyte pack after the method of Todorov. It was found that the inoculation of gamma-treated spirochetes led to sub-clinical changes in the hemopoiesis of the cockerels. Such changes, however, were negligible and were rapidly overcome by the birds. So they could successively be referred to in the specific immunoprophylaxis of spirochetosis. 59FeCl3 can be successfully applied in the study of anemia in birds caused by sbirochetosis.