Definition

1. Verb:
   • To modify microorganisms by repeated culture in the developing chick embryo: This is a technical term used in microbiology and virology. It refers to a specific laboratory process where a pathogen (like a virus or bacterium) is adapted to grow in avian (bird) embryos, often to attenuate it for vaccine development.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Researchers will avianise the influenza strain to study its adaptation.
  • The laboratory successfully avianised the virus over several generations of egg passage.

Advanced Usage

• This term is almost exclusively used in scientific and medical research contexts. It describes a precise, multi-step laboratory technique.
• The process of a virus can alter its properties, such as making it less virulent for mammals, which is a key step in creating some vaccines.

Variants and Related Words

• Avianization (noun): The process or result of making something avian or adapting it to birds.
  • The avianization of the virus was necessary for the vaccine's development.

Synonyms

• Attenuate (via egg passage): To reduce the severity or virulence of a pathogen, often through methods like serial passage in eggs.
• Adapt (to avian hosts): To adjust or modify for growth in bird embryos.

Notes on Meaning

• The term is highly specialized. The core meaning is the methodological adaptation of a microorganism through serial culture in chick embryos. It is not used in general or conversational English.

Verb

1. to modify microorganisms by repeated culture in the developing chick embryo