Insulin was extracted from chicken pancreases and purified; its chemical, immunological and biological properties were investigated. The chicken insulin preparation appeared homogeneous on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and its amiho acid composition was similar to that previously described by others. Among 21 guinea pig antihuman, anti-bovine and anti-porcine insulin sera, only one anti-porcine and two anti-human insulin sera cross-reacted with chicken insulin to a large extent. With one of them, chicken and human insulins were equipoterit, on a weight basis, in competing with the binding of 131 I-human insulin. The use of 13l I-chicken insulin improved the sensitivity of the radioimmunoassay (0.02 ng of insulin/ml of incubation medium) and allowed measurement of chicken insulin within the physiological range of its plasma concentrations. Chicken insulin (40 fig/kg of body wt) lowered the blood glucose level by 25% in the chicken. In isolated rat fat cells, chicken insulin was 1.5-to 1.9-fold as potent as highly purified preparations of porcine insulin (27 IU/mg) in stimulating glucose oxidation. In rat liver plasma membranes, chicken insulin was 1.8->to 2.4-fold as potent as porcine insulin in competing with the binding of 125 I-porcine insulin, and 2.4-fold as potent as porcine insulin in competing with the binding of 125 I-chicken insulin to the insulin receptor sites. 125 I-chicken and l25 I-porcine insulins were degraded to the same extent by the .liver membranes. Therefore, the enhanced biological potency observed in the rat in vitro with chicken insulin can be entirely accounted for by an increased binding affinity for the insulin receptors. (Endocrinology 95: 1439(Endocrinology 95: , 1974