The main objective of the present study was to evaluate genetic and phenotypic parameters of four important immunocompetence traits namely antibody response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC), serum haemolytic complement level (HC), serum lysozyme level (LSZ) and in vivo concanavalin-A (CON) response in broilers. A total of 476 progenies of 96 sires were evaluated. The data were analysed by employing a mixed model. Estimates of heritability for SRBC, HC, LSZ and CON were 0.081, 0.197, 0.214, 0.163, respectively. Genetic correlation coefficients among different immunocompetence traits were low or non-significant while the phenotypic correlation coefficients among CON, HC and LSZ were moderate and in positive direction. Results indicated that various immunocompetence traits are presumably controlled by additive and non-additive genetic effects and hence indirect selection based on these traits might lead to enhancement of overall improvement of immunocompetence status in broilers.
Immunocompetence, genetic and phenotypic parameters, broiler
