Abstract
Summary
Feeding antibiotics to chemically bursectomized (CB) birds has demonstrated that immunological incompetence in CB birds is a direct result of embryonic bursectomy and not secondary to growth rate or factors that increase mortality. Mature CB birds appear to produce normal amounts of agglutinin to sheep red blood cells, but are still deficient precipitin producers. Apparently, the chicken is capable of adapting immunologically to the altered internal environment produced by embryonic bursectomy.
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