Evaluation of Watile Reaction and Antibody Response in Different Cidcken Breeds

Benda V., A. Hampl, Katefina Trtkova: Evaluation of W'attle Reaction and Antibody Response in Different Chicken Breeds. Acta vet. Bmo, 59, 1990: 151-156. The intensity and kinetics of antibody production as well as wattle reaction to the natural antigens with different thymus dependence in adult birds of two layer breeds White Leghors (WL) and Rhode Island Red (RIR) were investigated. The breeds differed significantly in both humoral and cellular immune reactivity to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and Brucella abortus crude antigen (BA). This patterns are inherited showing a strong paternal influence on antibody formation. Data obtained in this trial indicate the importance of selection on appropriate immune response in poultry breeding programs. Wattle reaction, natural antibodies, breed differences, immunoreactivity The origin of the history of thousands years of breeding of the domestic fowl may be traced. in Asia, from where this species, important from the economy standpoint, has been propagated throughout the world. It may serve by way of an example of an exceptionally successful selection with respect to remarkable useful characteristics such as the growth and reproduction, since from the ancient times, the top annual production of eggs was increased by a factor exceeding 5 i. e. from 60 to more than 300 eggs. To a similarly remarkable extent, the breeders stimulated the growth and production of the muscle mass, which is formed in specialized lines, at a feed conversion in a ratio of 2 : 1, with a much higher rate as compared to primitive breeds. The high production, approaching the physiologic limits of the organism brings, however, also certain negative consequences, the most important of them beeing undoubtedly a reduced adaptability and resistance to adverse environmental effects. By this concept we mean, besides low-quality feed,. stabling and treatment and particularly pathogenic effects of a wide scale of macroand microparasites, whose interaction with the host modifies to different degrees the health condition and. thus, it threatens the population fitness (Templeton et a!. 1988). Thus, the increasing production also results in increasing costs for the prevention and treatment of diseases of the parasitic, bacterial or viral origin. These losses can be faced successfully on the basis of breeding, since it is known that immunology mechanism, forming a base of the natural resistance of animals are determined genetically (Crittenden 1983). Revealing of disturbances of the immunity or possibly of quantitative differences in the immune response in different breeds of the fowl is facilitated thanks to a number of methods (Van der Zijpp 1983), which were used in our experiments for comparing, selected parameters of the cellular and humoral immunity in two commercial layer breeds. Materials and Methods Chickens Two commercial layer breeds were studied White Leghorn (WL) and Rhode Island Red (RIR). Male chickens were kept in cages and immunized at the age of 17 weeks. Antigens Sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and crude antigen prepared from germs of the Brucella abortus (BA) strain S99 Weybridge (Bioveta Ivanovice, Czechoslovakia) were used for the immunisation in the form of a 10 % suspension in physiologic saline. Phytohemagglutinin P (SIGMA. St. Louis, USA) was dissolved in a concentration of 1 mg/ml, also in physiologic saline.