Vitamin E and immune responses of broiler pureline chickens. Poult. Sci

ABSTRACT Immunological responses of cockerels fed diets containing either 10 or 300 mg/kg of vitamin E were measured in three commercial broiler nuclear lines designated as A, B, and C. All cockerels were fed the 10 mg/kg diet to 91 d of age, at which time half were contin-ued on that diet and the other half were fed a diet supple-mented to contain 300 mg/kg of vitamin E. Sixteen days after feeding the diets, cutaneous basophil hypersensitiv-ity (CBH), which is an in vivo, cell-mediated immune response, was determined as the increase in toe-web skin thickness 24 h after an injection with phytohemaggluti-nin-P (PHA-P). Twenty-two days after feeding the diets, heterophils and lymphocytes were enumerated. At this time cockerels were also inoculated intravenously with 0.1 mL of 0.25 % SRBC. The injection with SRBC wa