Levels of Minerals in Sera of Chickens Suffering from Marek's Disease

Jurajdova J.: Levels of Minerals in Sera of Chickens Suffering from Marek's Disease. Acta vet. Brno, 47, 1978: 189-196. The concentrations were studied of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus as well as the correlations and coefficients of their level ratios in sera of RIR chickens 56 days after infection with Marek's disease virus, and they were compared with the controls. In the infected chickens a reduction of the concentration of calcium was observed, with the exception of chickens suffering from tumors, and an increased concentration of magnesium which was the highest in chickens with tumors. In chickens with tumors a reduced phosphorus level was observed, while in those with macroscopically unchanged kidneys also a decrease in the sodium concentration was found. In infected chickens the coefficient of the Ca/Mg ratio was reduced and reached its maximum value in tumorous chickens. Correlations between calcium and phosphorus found in control chickens were not proved in the infected chickens and no other were observed. Marek's disease, chickens, serum, mineral substances. Properties of the internal milieu of the organism were maintained in values optimal for cel and tissue activity. The stability of the internal milieu is ensured through the activity of many complicated regulation mechanisms under the direct coaction of biocatalysts among which we include mineral substances as well. Studies dealing with the importance of mineral substances in proteosynthesis (Greger and Schwartz 1974; Rubin 1975), oncogenicity (Zyka 1972; Sula 1974; Anast et al. 1975; Brennan et al. 1976) or with the effect of chelates in in vitro experiments on the yield of Marek's disease virus (Aldinger and Calnek 1971) led us to studies of the metabolism ofminera\ substances in Marek's disease in in vivo experiments with chickens. Material and Methods Experimental chickens Experiments were carried out with one-day-old chickens of Sykes Line B Rhode Island Red (RIR) from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague, susceptible to infection with the Marek's disease virus (Biggs et al. 1968). Chickens were infected aerogenically with dust from an enterprise with a permanent occurrence of acute Marek's disease (MD) and stored for 95 -118 days after collection underiaboratory temperature in a way described earlier (Jurajda and KIimeS 1970). The infectiousness of the dust was proved by in vitro examinations in cell cultures of chicken kidneYl! 7.25 X 102 PFU/g of dust (Hlozanek et al. 1976).