"Oral Immunization of Chickens for Refinement of Egg-Yolk Antibody Production: Implementation of Four R’s in Antibody Production."

We have demonstrated that chickens are excellent antibody producers utilizing antibodies purified from egg-yolk instead of blood from mammals. This project will develop lenient oral immunization techniques so polyclonal antibody production may cease to entail any unpleasantness for the animal. We achieve: Refinement because animals are not restrained, injected or blood sampled; Reduction because chickens produce far more antibody in the egg-yolk than can be obtained from mammals of comparable sizes; Replacement because antibody production will no longer be an unpleasant procedure. Finally, Responsibility is demonstrated by transforming antibody production into a normal animal friendly farm animal production system.