Polydactyly and anterior horn cells in fowl

✍ Scribed by Lisbeth Baumann; Walter Landauer

• Book ID: 102808391
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1943
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 553 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.900790110

✦ Synopsis

ONE FIGURE

Polydactyly is a well-known hereditary trait of fowl. It is characteristic for three breeds (Houdan, Dorking, Silkie) , and generally leads to the presence of five toes on each foot, instead of the normal four. The polydactylous condition arises by a splitting of the first toe. Asymmetrical occurrence of polydactyly is rarely found in polydactylous breeds, but is fairly common among the progenies of outcrosses betweeii polydactylous and non-polydactylous chickens.

As part of a more comprehensive investigation of polydactyly in fowl, it was decided to study the relations, if any, which unilateral polydactyly has to the frequency of the different types of motor neurons in the two anterior horns of the lumbo-sacral spinal cord.