Relationship between reproductive performance and immunity in Taiwan country chickens

Department of Animal Science, National Chiayi University, Taiwan, Republic of China. yplee@mail.nchu.edu.tw

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relationships among reproductive performance, serum gamma-globulin level, carbon clearance ability, and immune responses to phytohemagglutinin and SRBC in the Taiwan Country chicken. In Experiment 1, 480 pullets from 82 sires and 204 dams were used to evaluate the relationship between reproductive performance and immunity. In Experiment 2, 480 pullets, offspring from 55 sires and 173 dams expressing a high or low percentage of serum gamma-globulin and their reciprocal crosses, were used to examine if the level of serum gamma-globulin is associated with reproductive performance and immunity. Results of these experiments indicated that 1) the Taiwan Country chicken had relatively high serum gamma-globulin level compared with those in other reports, 2) serum gamma-globulin level in the Taiwan Country chicken is heritable with an estimate around 0.3 to 0.4, and 3) the high serum gamma-globulin level is genetically associated with low fertility.