Effect of butachlor on cell-mediated immunity in chicken Kumar R, Singhal L.K., Singh B.P., Chauhan R.S. Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Sciences, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, 263 145, India. Abstract Herbicides form 13% of the total pesticides used in the world. Butachlor is considered to be most widely used herbicide. Hence, a study was conducted to evaluate the effect of butachlor on cell-mediated immunity in chicken. For this study a total of 80 chicks were used and divided into two groups; control and treatment group of 40 birds each. Control group was given normal feed and treatment group was given butachlor in feed at dose rate of 50 ppm, which is considered to be “no observable effect level” (NOEL) dose. Blood was collected from birds at weekly interval upto 8 weeks of age. To evaluate the status of CMI, total leukocyte count, absolute lymphocyte count, lymphocyte blastogenesis assay for T-cells, using con-A as mitogen, was performed. Cell meediated immunity was also assessed by delayed type of hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction to dinitrochloro benzene (DNCB) at 8th week of experiment. At the 8th week, it was found that there was a significant decrease in TLC (31%) and ALC (23.37%) values in the butachlor fed group. In Iymphocyte blastogenic capacity, there was 21.32% decrease by the 8th week, in herbicide fed group over the control. Similarly in DTH also, there was significant decrease in reaction to DNCB in butachlor fed group. It was concluded that butachlor down-regulates the cell mediated immunity even NOEL dose. Top Key words Immunosuppression, cell-mediated immunity, herbicide, butachlor, poultry. Top |