Experimental egg transmission of chicken anemia agent

When inoculated with chicken anemia agent (CAA) via the yolk sac at 6 days of age, chick embryos could develop normally into chicks. All the chicks hatched suffered from anemia and died at 10 to 15 days of age with bone marrow aplasia. Specific pathogen free laying hens were inoculated with CAA, and eggs were collected from them over a period from 1 to 28 days after inoculation. Two of 67 chicks hatched from the eggs revealed anemia at 14 days of age. CAA was recovered from 3 of 40 chicks. From the results, a possibility of egg transmission of CAA from dams to their progeny was experimentally suggested.