Observations on the effect of human chorionic gonadotrophin on the antler cycle of fallow deer

✍ Scribed by Jaczewski, Zbigniew ;Michalakowa, Wieslawa

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 677 KB
• Volume: 190
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401900107

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Three experiments on the administration of HCG to fallow deer bucks are described and analysed together with another experiment described earlier. In two cases the administration of HCG was begun before antler shedding and resulted in retardation of their loss and in an inhibition of new growth. The next antlers were of a smaller size. These effects can be attributed to the influences of HCG on testosterone secretion by the testes.

In two other experiments the administration of HCG was begun on the day the antlers were shed. In one case antler growth was stopped completely and no anti‐HCG antibodies were detected in blood. In the second case the antlers grew in spite of HCG injections and a high titre of antibodies was detected in the blood. The anti‐HCG antibodies were only detected in the buck which received HCG injections a second time after a four‐year interval.