The Domestic Chick: A Substitute for the Honey-Guide as a Symbiont with Cerolytic Microorganisms

The experiments described in this report represent a portion of a more comprehensive study which deals with the mechanisms of wax digestion in an African bird, the lesser honey-guide, Indicator minor. It has been found that newly hatched domestic chicks will also metabolize waxes provided these materials are fed to them together with cerolytic microorganisms initially isolated from the gut of the honey-guide. The chicken alone is not able to break down the wax, and the microorganisms alone can do far less along this line than when in the intestinal environment of the host bird.