ONE FIGUREAlthough it is well known that blood from one human being may produce severe reactions when transfused into another, such reactions receive little attention among the lower animals. I n practice blood from individual dogs, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits is given intravenously to others of the same species with little expectation of transfusion reactions. Similarly such procedures have been used in our laboratory on pigeons and ducks with no outwardly apparent reactions.Data have been collected, however, which show that erythrocytes of one individual pigeon may have a very short survival when transfused into another individual of the same strain, and the data demonstrating this incompatiblity are the subject of this report.
MATERIALS AND METHODSPigeons of the White Carneau strain, 6 weeks of age when received, were used throughout the study. The birds were maintained on Purina Pigeon Chow and water, ad libitum.One ml of blood was removed from the wing vein by venipuncture, and was drawn into a syringe containing 1 ml ACD2 solution. The diluted blood was gently delivered into a 50-ml