Respiratory activity of avian blood cells

The respiratory activity of avian blood cells was determined with samples of whole blood from individual male and female chickens. this oxygen consumption represents only that of the cells since no measurable activity was found in the plasma samples. the precision of determining respiratory activity was examined statistically and found to be approximately that obtained with a blood cell count but much less precise than the packed cell volume determination. the variability of cell count and mean corpuscular volume indicates that neither is a good means for expressing oxygen consumption – the most meaningful basis is oxygen consumption per milliliter of cells. the relationship between blood cell respiration and temperature is described.