Field Evaluation of Maternal Antibody Transfer to a Group of Pathogens in Meat-Type Chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the rate of antibody transfer on a flock basis from hens to their day-old chicks in meat-type chickens raised in a commercial setting. Fifteen randomly selected hens from a commercial broiler-breeder flock were bled at 37, 40, and 45 wk of age. At day of bleeding, the collected eggs were identified and tracked through hatching where 30 hatchlings were randomly sampled and bled from the jugular vein. Antibodies against 10 different pathogens were quantified from the collected serum samples, and the percentage of maternal antibodies transfer was calculated from the chick antibody titer divided by the hen antibody titer. The results showed a significant variation in the rate of antibody transfer among the pathogens tested for. The transfer percentages were 4.3, 19.5, 25.5, 38.6, 73.6, 6.9, 32.4, 22.4, 29.2, and 32.8 for avian encephalomyelitis virus, avian influenza virus, chicken anemia virus, infectious bronchitis virus, infectious bursal disease virus, laryngotracheitis virus, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, Mycoplasma synoviae, Newcastle disease virus, and reovirus, respectively. The results of this work may be used in commercial farms to predict the antibody titer in day-old chicks as a function of their dams' antibody titers.

Role of maternally derived immunity in fish

“…The transfer of immunoglobulin/antibodies to the offspring has been reported in diversified vertebrates such as avian [92], mammal [6], reptile [93] and fish [94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107]. Successful transfer of maternal IgM to eggs and embryos has been documented in several teleostean fishes like plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), tilapia (Oreochromis aureus), carp (C. carpio, Labeo rohita), sea bream (Sparus aurata), sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), and rainbow trout (O. mykiss) [109][110][111] ( Table 2).…”

“…Swain, S.K. Nayak / Fish & Shellfish Immunology27 (2009) [89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99] …”

Epidemiology of Avian Infectious Laryngotracheitis with Special Focus to South America: an update

“…This protein presents similar characteristics as some poxviruses and the murine gamma herpesvirus 68 (MHV-98), and their function is to evade host immune responses (Coppo et al, 2013b). Maternal antibodies are transmitted to offspring via eggs (Benton et al, 1960), as shown by their presence in day-old chicks (Gharaibeh et al, 2008); however, they do not protect against infection or interfere with vaccination (Fahey et al, 1983).…”

Decay of maternal antibodies in broiler chickens

“…Previous results from our laboratory estimated the rate of mAb transfer from the parent flock to their chicks (Gharaibeh et al, 2008). This study was designed to estimate the half-life of these mAb against different pathogens in broiler chicks.…”