A Chemical and Immunological Study of Egg Protein Obtained under Restricted Diets

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Abstract
Pigeons were kept under controlled conditions with rations limited to a single kind of grain supplemented with grit, oyster shell, charcoal, salt and tap water. The birds maintained weight, health, vigor, and egg production, except in the cases noted, for a period of about one hundred and fifty days. Representative eggs were subjected to a modified Van Slyke procedure for the determination of nitrogen distribution and showed differences in the chemical make-up of their proteins. Ammonia nitrogen showed the largest deviations represented by 4.75 per cent of total nitrogen for “rye” eggs and 8.40 per cent for “barley” egg protein. Total nitrogen content of the egg material was fairly constant showing slight absolute differences. Mono-amino nitrogen was higher in the eggs obtained from the feeding of hemp, soybeans, and wheat, while “kafir” eggs showed a higher diamino nitrogen content. Corn and kafir yielded eggs with the highest non-amino nitrogen in the basic fraction. It was possible to produce anaphylactic shock in white rats and guinea pigs through which means quantitative differences were indicated in the immunological relationships between the egg proteins from the various sources suggesting dissimilar chemical composition. Incubation of a number of eggs indicates the importance of the protein present in the egg in the development of the embryo, both at the beginning and the end of incubation. Initial progress, shown by a series of photomicrographs, implies a beneficence of the proteins supplied to the egg by hemp, soybeans, and wheat, whereas corn and oat embryos developed much more slowly, indicating a poorer quality of protein.

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