COMPARISM OF CELLULAR AND HUMORAL IMMUNE RESPONSES OF CHICKS TO INFECTIOUS BURSAL DISEASE VACCINATION

Abstract

To study the relationship between cellular immune response and humoral immune response of chicks to Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) vaccination, four groups of chicks vaccinated with IBD vaccine were bled 3 weeks post vaccination (PV).Their whole blood samples were used for total and differential White Blood Cells (WBC) count to determine number of lymphocytes per ml of their blood, while their sera were used for Qauntitative Agar Gel Precipitation Test (QAGPT) to assess antibody titre. Least AGPT titre that gave zero mortality to IBDV challenge was also determined. Correlation existed between humoral immune response with mean antibody (AGPT) titre, 9 ± 2.06 and cellular immune response with mean lymphocytes count (Per ml) ,216,500 ± 20,900 ( p < 0.05 ). From AGPT titre 8 (about 200,000 lymphocytes per ml of blood) and above, there was zero mortality to IBDV challenge.