Genetics of immunocompetence traits in Aseel native chicken

Abstract

Immunocompetence (IC) profile of 242 chicks, belonging to Aseel breed of native chicken, were analyzed for four important traits, viz., humoral immune response (HA test), cell mediated immune response (Foot Web index) and serum levels of lysozyme (Lysoplate Assay) and IgG (SRID) with the objectives of assessing their immunocompetence profile and determining the effects of various genetic and non-genetic factors on these traits. Data on IC traits were analyzed by least squares analysis of variance taking sire as random and hatch as fixed effects. Heritability estimates were low to medium and associated with high standard errors. The phenotypic correlations (r p) among IC traits were very low. CMI response had high and negative genetic correlations (r g) with serum lysozyme and IgG. However, r g between serum lysozyme and IgG was high and positive. It may be inferred that general immunocompetence profile of the birds can be improved by selecting for combination of different facets of its immune system. © GSP, India.