Basal and spontaneous exocrine pancreatic secretion in conscious and anaesthetized chickens, Gallus domesticus

Basal exocrine pancreatic secretion was studied in anaesthetized and conscious chickens and spontaneous secretion was studied in anaesthetized chickens. Results are compared with those of other vertebrates to estimate the specific pattern of this secretion in birds. The flow of pancreatic juice was greater in conscious chickens than when anaesthetized (Table 1). Amylase activity was greater than that of the other species and was of the same order in anaesthetized and conscious birds (Table 1). A spontaneous exocrine pancreatic secretion was seen to remain after eliminating a large part of the tonic influences (Table 2).