The Chick as a Model for the Study of the Cellular Mechanisms and Potential Therapies for Alzheimer's Disease

Table 1

Comparison of training tasks in chicks and mice.

	Chicks	Mice
Training paradigm	Passive avoidance	Passive avoidance; Fear conditioning; Water maze (multiple  trials)
Timing	10 secends training time	Passive avoidance - Brief; Fear conditioning - Brief; Water maze - multiple trials
Suitable for biochemical analysis	Yes	Passive avoidance - yes; Fear conditioning - yes; Water maze - unsuitable
Sex	Natural distribution of males and females in the hatch. (Sex determined post hoc by inspection of gonads)	Generally males only
Group size	Large (20 chicks/group)	Small
Intracranial injections	Anaesthesia not required	Anaesthesia required
BBB	Not fully developed	Fully developed
Genome	Sequenced in 2004	Sequenced in 2002
Transgenic model	No	Yes, many (for review see Crews et al., 2010; [11])