Attempted Oral Infection of Chicks with Plasmodium gallinaceum

Attempts were made to infect chicks with P. gallinaceum, to which they are highly susceptible, by introducing the organisms orally as infected blood, suspension of ground infected mosquitoes, chick skin that had been bitten by infected mosquitoes, or the spleens of infected chicks. No infections followed any of the approaches. In studying the host-species specificity of Plasmodium gallinaceum, I found (Beckman, 1963) that when the skin of an albino mouse (a nonsusceptible species) that has been bitten by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with this organism is introduced intraperitoneally into a clean chick (a susceptible species) it does not give rise to infection, whereas when bitten chick skin is so introduced it does cause infection. This observation has led me to look for another route of introduction of the bitten skin, since there is a remote possibility that a deterrent reaction may occur between mouse skin and chick intraperitoneal fluid. I therefore undertook to infect clean chicks with P. gallinaceum introduced orally in various ways as preliminary to intensive comparative study of orally introduced bitten mouse and chick skins. This communication records complete failure to infect chicks through oral introduction of P. gallinaceum in any of the several techniques employed.