The effect of bursectomy on the adoptive transfer of resistance to Marek's disease

Abstract

Immunization with inactivated viral antigens protected chickens against Marek's disease. Non-immunized chickens could be protected by injections of spleen cells but not of serum from immunized, histocompatible donors. Chickens rendered agamma-globulinaemic by bursectomy and irradiation could also be immunized against Marek's disease by inoculation with viral antigens, but spleen cells from these immunized, bursectomized and irradiated donors did not confer protection on the recipients into which they were injected. It was concluded that, although in the bursectomized, immunized donors cell-mediated immunity alone was able to provide a fair degree of protection against Marek's disease, the protection afforded against the disease by spleen-cell transfer was at least partly attributable to the transfer of antibody-producing cells, and that humoral immunity, while not being an absolute requirement for resistance, is normally an important component of the resistance mechanism.

Laryngotracheitis herpesvirus infection in the chicken. II. The adoptive transfer of resistance with immune spleen cells

“…Adoptive cell-transfer techniques have been used successfully in mice to study the protective role of immune cells against many pathogens, including herpesviruses (Oakes, 1975;Rager-Zisman and Allison, 1976). In chickens the technique has been used to study the role of immune spleen cells (Powell et al, 1980) and nonimmune spleen cells Linna, 1979 and in resistance to the herpesvirus causing Marek's disease. Cell-transfer techniques have also been used to study the cells responsible for humoral immunity in chickens.…”

Lymphoproliferative disease of turkeys: Effect of chemical and surgical bursectomy on viraemia, pathogenesis and on the humoral immune response1

“…A delicate balance undoubtedly exists between the various lymphoid cell populations, and the complex immunological mechanisms which are involved in tumour inhibition and enhancement. The outcome of bursectomy or CY-treatment on lymphoid and other tumours of birds are, therefore, not unequivocal (Payne and Rennie, 1970;Linna etal., 1974;Calnek et al, 1978;Powell et al, 1980;Price and Smith, 1981). Data presented here showed that the humoral immune response of intact turkeys infected with LPDV was not decreased at 6 or 7 weeks post-infection.…”