1Department of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, (Haryana), India.
2Department of Veterinary Pathology, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, (Uttaranchal), India.
Synthetic pyrethroid insecticides are used for control of household and agricultural insects, as well as in industrial stored product and veterinary applications for control of ectoparasites. Only a limited number of studies have been conducted regarding the immunotoxic effect of this group of insecticides. Therefore, the present study was conducted to study immunotoxic effect of fenvalerate, a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide on humoral immune response in sheep. For this study, eight 6 months old lambs were taken and were randomly divided in two groups of 4 lambs each. These lambs were vaccinated with Brucella melitensis Rev. 1 vaccine at day zero and day 90. One group was given fenvalerate daily orally, a no adverse effect dose of 1.25 mg/kg body wt. for 6 months. Serum globulins and gammaglobulins were estimated at 10 days interval. Specific humoral immune response was measured by standard tube agglutination test and ELISA at 10 days interval. In fenvalerate fed lambs, significant suppression in serum globulins, gammaglobulins and specific Brucella antibodies in comparison to control was observed indicating immunosuppressive effect of the insecticide.
Fenvalerate, Sheep, Humoral immune response, Immunosuppression
