Effects of nutrition on development of immune competence in chicken's gut-associated lymphoid system

One of the key stimulators of intestinal development in the chick is physical exposure to feed, while feed withholding delays the onset of gut development. A delay of 24-72 hours in onset of feeding is quite common in the poultry industry due to variation in hatching time and hatchery treatments. As intestinal development occurs in concert with the development of the gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), we investigated the effects of short term feed withholding on development of GALT in broiler hatchlings. Our findings show that innate immunity was fully functional at hatch, while development of adaptive immunity was delayed. GALT development in the foregut was slightly and temporarily impeded by feed withholding, but activity in the hindgut and bursa was significantly delayed till week two of age. The two week vulnerable period should be seriously considered in circumstances where hatchlings are in transit for extended periods from hatcheries to farms.