But why did the banned substance show up recently in eight of 12 samples of "feather meal," the ground-down plumage leftover from commercial poultry production?
To detect AIVs, a highly sensitive PCR-based method [20] was used to initially screen pooled samples of feather and cloacal swabs (Figure S1).
McKellar and his colleagues "present an exciting and broad sample of feathers," says Richard Prum, an evolutionary ornithologist at Yale University.
While most Thin-billed prions from the Falkland Islands spend the moulting period in Antarctic waters, about 10% of adults spent the interbreeding period in a more northern foraging area according to a smaller sample of feathers (Quillfeldt et al. 2008).
Confidence in interpretations of the rules of flight feather replacement depends on good samples of growing feathers at every feather position.
(Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?) The other peer-reviewed study, reported in a journal called Science of the Total Environment, found arsenic in every sample of feather meal tested.
In the case of the Archaeopteryx trace elements, whole fossils have been scanned, but other techniques do require the removal of tiny samples of the feathers or other tissues for analysis.
Samples of the feather moss Hylocomium splendens (Hedw).
In addition, he wrote letters to many naturalists and pigeon-fanciers in different parts of the world requesting to send him their own domestic pigeons; i.e., living samples or at least samples of skins and feathers.
In addition, 15 feather samples of P. panini and 7 feather samples of A. waldeni were collected from molted feathers in nest holes of wild birds on Panay.
