Major histocompatibility complex effect on cellulitis among different chicken lines

Abstract

The chicken major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has been implicated in conferring resistance/susceptibility to several bacterial, parasitic, and viral diseases. Investigators have shown that the chicken MHC plays a major role in determining the outcome of a Marek's disease infection, in that standard B 13 is susceptible to the virus while B 21 confers resistance to the virus. Previous work with a broiler line has shown that B 21 is susceptible to an Escherichia coli-induced cellulitis infection and that B 13 conferred resistance to the infection. For this experiment, a broiler and a Leghorn chicken line shown to contain standard B 13 and B 21 were examined in a challenge model for cellulitis. The birds were challenged with a cellulitis-causing E. coli isolate. Homozygous B 21 had the highest incidence of cellulitis development compared with either homozygous B 13 or the heterozygous B 13/B 21 for both the broiler and Leghorn lines. Additionally, cellulitis lesion severity was measured in both lines and shown to be independent of MHC type.