The Effect of Diet type (Mash, Pellets, Extruded and Crumble) on
some Immune Responses Broiler Chicken
ABSTRACT: New processing methods of feed in poultry feed industry with changing the feed physical and
chemical structures can increase the availability and digestibility of nutrients and influence some immune
responses. The aim of this study is evaluating the effect of diet type (mash, pellets, extruded and crumble) on
some immune responses. For this purpose 240 one day ROSS 308 chickens were used. Chickens were grouped
as a CRD design with 4 treatments and 5 replications. During the experiment chickens freely access to food
and water. The treatments consisted of mash diet, pelleted diet, crumbles diet and extruded diet. All diets
were identical in terms of all the nutrients and energy and protein levels. All diets were same in terms of all
the nutrients and energy and protein levels. In this research, data were analyzed using SAS (2008) based on
CRD design as a GLM method. Two chickens at the age of 25 days from each replication were selected and
washed sheep red blood cells were injected into chickens. On day 30 of the experiment, blood was sampled
from chickens by hemagglutination method to determine the level of antibody production against sheep
washed red blood cells. Then with using prepared plasma specific antibodies production content against
influenza and Newcastle diseases in chicken's blood serum were measured by hemagglutination inhibition
method. In this study, the impact of diet types on the amount of antibody produced against the flu virus was
not significant. However, the amount of antibody production against Newcastle virus in the mash treatment
significantly was higher than in extruded treatment. Using crumble in comparison with extruded treatment
caused to significant increase in antibody production against washed sheep red blood cells. However, between
mash and pelleted treatments there were no statistical difference. Diet types had no significant effects on
heterophile / lenfosit and lymphoid organ weights. Results showed that extruded diet type had no significant
effect on heterophile / lenfosit, lymphoid organ weights and antibody content against flu virus.
Keywords: hemagglutination method, lymphoid organ.