College of Veterinary Sciences, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263 145, India.
T-Iymphocytes are the main component of cell mediated immunity (CMI) and are developed in specitic environment of thymus. Development of CMI, in chicken embryo, was evaluated on the basis of mitogen (Con-A) induced proliferation of lymphocytes. At 16 day of incubation lymphocytes were unresponsive to any mitogenic stimuli but in 21-day-old embryo (just before hatching) CMI was well developed and was in a functional state.
