Impact of cold stress on blood biochemical and immune status in male and female vanaraja chickens

In this study blood biochemistry and immune status of male and female Vanraja chickens were recorded under cold stress. Birds were acclimated two weeks prior to the start of experiment and later divided into two groups. Control group (n= 12 with equal number from each sex) was maintained at an environmental temperature of 27–30°C and Test group (n= 12 with equal number from each sex) was housed in a designed chamber were the temperature (10± 1°C) remained stable at least for 5–6 hours in a day. After 3 consecutive days (72 hours) of temperature treatment Phytohaemagglutinin-P (PHA-P) at the dose rate of 0.5 mg in 0.1 ml PBS were injected to the patagium of both control and test group of birds to study the cell mediated immune response by measuring the dermal swelling in response to inflammatory reaction after 24 hours of injection of Phytohaemagglutinin-P (PHA-P). After 96 hours of cold treatment the blood samples were collected from the wing vein to analyze the blood biochemical parameters using standard protocols. Significant difference_(p< 0.01) between treatments were observed in H/L ratio, Wing web thickness, Glucose, total protein, albumin, globulin, Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity.