Hardware of the flight experiment "Quail-SK" transport incubator.

The transportation of quail eggs in various stages of incubation was used in an experiment at the orbital station MIR by the Slovak astronaut, Bella in February 1999. Device description, diagrams, and experimental results are presented in this paper.

[The effect of hypodynamia on striated muscles in Japanese quail].

The effect of hypodynamia during 9, 30, 60 and 90 days on the striated muscle m. gastrocnemius in Japanese quails was studied. We have found different developed dystrophic changes of mitochondria, myofibrils and sarcotubular system.

Characteristics of enterococci and staphylococci isolated from the crop and caecum of Japanese quails exposed to microgravity conditions.

Ten selected strains of enterococci and staphylococci were isolated from the crop and caecum of Japanese quails exposed to microgravity conditions. Isolates were allotted to the species Enterococcus gallinarum, Ent. avium, Ent.

[The effect of high gravity on embryonic development in birds].

An experiment was conducted on Japanese quail and hen hatching eggs that had been incubated, and the embryos were subjected to hypergravitation of 10 G for 10 min on days 1 to 9 of embryonic development. Both the experimental group and the control contained each 20 hatching eggs every day of the experiment (360 eggs in total). A centrifuge of the diameter 1,300 mm was used to create overload (hypergravitation) at the speed of 118 rotations per min.

[Quantitative ultrastructure of the myocardium of Japanese quail after long-term hypodynamia].

Quantitative ultrastructural myocardial changes of myocardium of the japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were studied during an immobilization stress (hypodynamia) lasting 9, 30, 60 and 90 days. Hypodynamic quails were fixed by waistcoats to the feeding place simulating conditions of long lasting space flight which the quails were determined for. The surveyed morphological parametres were: mitochondrial rate, mitochondrial volume in % of cytoplasm, volume of myofibres in % of cytoplasm, volume of single mitochondria, extent of cristolysis.