Reducing fat deposition in poultry by immunisation against adipocyte membranes: II. Effects of active immunisation on chicken performance and carcass composition

A. S. Zainur and I. Shukran Baki

Abstract

This study was to find out the possibility of replacing passive by active immunisation. This is because passive immunisation requires too much antibodies for injection and these antibodies were also short lived in the animals’ circulatory system. This was done by comparing the effects of active immunisation of chicken to those of passive immunisation as done in many earlier works. Active immunisation involves the injection of 250 μg adipocyte membranes/chicken/immunisation. This study showed that active immunisation produced maximum antibody production after the third immunisation where 77.8% of the immunised chicken produced antibodies. The specific concentration of antibodies was at a dilution of 1:10, 000. In terms of performance it was shown that the immunised chicken as compared to controls were eating less while carcasses were bigger. The carcass compositions of these immunised animals as compared to controls showed that there was a reduction of 17% in total fat and these reductions vary between depos (breast fat 5%, neck fat 15% and other fat 41%). Increasing the number of immunisations also increased the reductions of fat in these depos. The immunisation also did not show any adverse effects on metabolism as indicated by values of various blood metabolites like urea, glucose, creatinine, triglycerides, cholesterol, GOT and billirubin. The similarities of these effects to those seen earlier in passive immunisations suggest that there is a possibility of replacement of passive immunisation by active immunisation.

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