CHICKEN
Chickens provide an ideal host animals for the production of a large volume of antibodies to peptides and conserved mammalian proteins over a long period of time. Hen antibodies are concentrated in the yolk of the egg and can be purified by a number of methods. Hens provide a number of specific advantages over rabbits:
- Cost: Chickens are inexpensive to obtain and maintain.
- Conserved proteins: Chickens produce antibodies to mammalian proteins that are poorly immunogenic in rabbits.
- Quantity of antibodies: One egg typically contains 50-100mg IgY compared to 200mg IgG in a typical rabbit production bleed. However eggs are produced nearly every day, while a rabbit can be bled only once a month. This translates into a monthly antibody production of 1500mg/chicken versus only 200mg/rabbit!
- Egg collection is a non-invasive method of antibody production.
Eggs will be stored at 4C and shipped weekly, monthly, or as specified by the customer. Alternatively, the egg-yolks can be isolated and stored in phosphate buffered saline (usually with sodium azide as a preservative).
The program duration can be extended in 28-day increments producing several grams of specific IgY.
Optional services include:
- Purification of IgY antibodies from egg yolks
- Subtractive chromatography against E. coli, yeast, or insect proteins
- Antigen specific affinity chromatography