Effect of avotan on the immune response and performance of chickens

Forty five commercial day old chicks were divided into three equal groups, the first one was kept as a control and fed on unmedicated feed, the second and third groups were given avotan in dietary concentrations of 1 and 2 g/kg, respectively. The control and treated chickens were vaccinated with NDV at 2 weeks of age and blood samples were collected at 4 weeks of experiment for determination of HI titer and serum electrophoretic pattern. At the 6th week, 5 birds from each group were injected intradermally in the right wattle with 0.1 ml killed oil adjuvant NDV vaccine for dermal sensitivity reaction. The chickens were weighed weekly throughout the experiment [52 days]. Weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were recorded. The results showed significant increase of HI titer, dermal reaction, total and gamma-globulins in the treated groups. Marked increase of weight gain and improvement of feed conversion were also observed