ABSTRACT
The volume of blood that is maintained by a bird is approximately 10% of its body weight. Male broiler chicks whose blood volume was determined at varying ages from eight to 29 days of age had mean blood volumes of 9.2 mL/100 g body weight at eight days. The blood volume of the domestic chicken embryo were assessed during its eleventh to eighteenth day of incubation by Yosphe-Purer et al. using Evans blue dye. The total blood volume, plasma volume and hematocrit were seen to decrease in the guineahen Numida meleagris during its egg-laying interval. A modest survey of freshwater aquatic and nonaquatic birds has indicated that aquatic birds are likely to maintain larger total blood volumes, plasma volumes and erythrocyte volumes than their nonaquatic counterparts. Columba livia the blue rock or domestic pigeon has a blood volume that may be the largest among avians.
