Twenty strains of E. coli were found to vary in their capacity to kill chick embryos, without relationship to their human enteropathogenicity. Prior infection of 13-day-old embryonated eggs with E. coli strains selected for low embryo virulence had a marked protective effect against superinfection with V. cholerae.

This effect was duplicated by pretreatment of embryos with killed E. coli cells or endotoxin preparations but not with a suspension of killed cells of a Gram-positive species. Preparatory E. coli infection induces a phase of vibriostasis in the 13-day-old egg which may be sufficient to tide the embryo over into the phase of relative insusceptibility associated with age. Younger embryos exhibit only a lag in death under similar conditions.

The chick embryo is presented as a potentially valuable tool for the study of combined infections and of the mechanisms of natural resistance.