Immune system plays an important role in safeguarding the body against several extraneous invaders and internal disturbances. Effect of Immuplus, an herbal immunomodulator on the paraspecific immunity in developing stages of chicks was studied. For this purpose 104 freshly hatched chicks were maintained up to 60 days of age under ideal husbandry conditions in two groups of 52 each. One group was continuously administered with Immuplus @ 25 mg/kg body weight in drinking water and the other group was kept as control. All the chicks were vaccinated against New Castle disease (NCD) and infectious bursal disease (IBD) as per the prescribed schedule. Blood samples collected at 5 days intervals from day 1 to 60 of age from each group were subjected to nitroblue tetrazolium reduction assay (NBT), total leucocyte count (TLC) and absolue leucocyte count (ALC). Interleukin-1 and 2 (IL-1 and IL-2) levels in lymphocyte culture fluid were assessed using ELISA. The mean values of TLC, ALC, NBT and estimation of ELISA values for IL-1 and IL-2 in treated group of birds were significantly higher as compared to those in control group of birds. The number of NBT positive cells was significantly more in treated birds. It indicates the immunomodulatory property of Immuplus in chicks, which can be given to enhance the immunocompetence of birds.
Immuplus, Paraspecific immunity, Chicks, Herbal immunomodulator
