Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, (Uttaranchal).
Pesticides are known to cause immunosuppressionin poultry even in very low doses. However, their effect on production of interleukins is not clear. Thisstudy was planned to investigate the effect of zinc phosphide, a rodenticide, on production of interleukin-1 and interleukin-2 in poultry using peripheral blood mononuclear cells. No observable effect level (NOEL) dose of zinc phosphide was fed for 180 days and at an internal of 30 days. Mononuclear cells were separated from blood and cultured in RPMI-1640 media with 10% fetal calf serum. After 72 hours of incubation, cell culture fluid was drawn and examined for the presence of interleukin-1 and -2 using monoclonal markers and sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. It has been observed that zinc phosphide significantly reduces the levels of interleukin-1 and -2 in culture fluid of avian mononuclear cells. Hence, it can be concluded that zinc phosphide even at NOEL dose down regulates the IL-1 and -2 production.
Zinc phosphide, Interleukin, Chicken
