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Antibody Responses in Bursa-Deficient Chickens¹

From the Laboratory of Genetics and the Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Abstract

Normal and bursa-deficient chickens (obtained by surgery or 19-nortestosterone treatment) were immunized at 6 weeks with killed Brucella abortis. Antibody responses were assayed by a sensitive microagglutination test.

Chickens with bursa weight > 1000 mg showed a rapid increase in mean log₂ total antibody titer from 7 to a maximum of 21 at day 5 after immunization. Bursaless animals showed an increase from 3 to a maximum of 15 at day 7. The antibodies were chiefly mercaptoethanol-sensitive (IgM). By day 9 the total antibody titers in the bursaless and normal animals were almost the same—14 and 16. Bursaless chickens showed a very low ME-resistant (IgG) antibody titer (2) at day 9 when the normal chickens had IgG titers of 9.

The IgG titers at day 9 of all animals, normal and bursa-deficient, were strongly correlated with the IgM titers at the time (day 2) of the first clearly detectable response. The log₂ antibody titer on day 2 in turn was linearly related to log bursa weight from 6000 mg down to about 200 mg. When the bursa weight was below about 100 mg, the day 2 response was not different from that of bursaless animals.

The observed subnormalities of bursa-deficient animals are consistent with a decrease in a largely bursa-dependent early immune response (and IgM antibody level) which determines the later, more severe impairment of IgG antibody synthesis.

Footnotes

¹ This investigation, paper no. 1082 from the Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, was supported by the National Institutes of Health (GM 08217), the National Science Foundation (GB 4362) and The Ford Foundation.

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