Determination of avian leucosis virus in chicken pancreas

30 one-day-old chickens of the commercial HX-SL hybrid from the incubator house at Premyslovice were infected with tissue culture supernatant of clone LSCC-H32. This tissue culture produced the virus of avian lymphoid leucosis of subgroups A and B. After killing at the age of 21-37 weeks, samples of chick pancreas were examined histopathologically and by electron microscopy. Serological examination of serum and feather pulp for presence of avian sarcoma-leucosis gs antigen was simultaneously performed, using the ELISA test. In the pancreas of the experimental chickens both complete and incomplete viral particles of avian leucosis were found. Most frequently, they were localised in the electron-dense secretions of the lumen of pancreatic acini at apical plasma membranes of acinar cells but also in zymogenic granules and in intercellular spaces. The significance of these findings to possible horizontal transmission is discussed.