The feathering gene is linked to degranulation and oxidative burst not cytokine/chemokine mRNA expression levels or Salmonella enteritidis organ invasion in broilers

Figures & data

Figure 1.  Degranulation of heterophils isolated from 2-day-old chickens was compared to determine their ability to release toxic granules when stimulated with opsonized S. enteritidis. Data are pooled and presented as the mean±standard error of the mean of the µM β-d glucuronidase released from triplicate assays from three separate experiments (n = 450 chickens). All statistical differences are for comparisons between females (FF vs SF) or between males (FM vs SM) (*P < 0.05).

Figure 2.  Heterophils isolated from FF, SF, FM, and SM 2-day-old chickens were compared to determine their ability to generate an oxidative burst response following stimulation with the inflammatory agonist phorbol A-myristate 13-acetate. Data are pooled and presented as the mean±standard error of the mean of the RFU of triplicate assays from three separate experiments (n = 450 chickens). All statistical differences are for comparisons between females (FF vs SF) or between males (FM vs SM) (*P < 0.05).

Table 1.  Control, S. enteritidis-treated, and fold change of IL-6, CXCLi2, and IFN-α mRNA expression levels in heterophils isolated from F1 cross C and D chickens separated by sex^a

	IL-6			CXCLi2			IFN-α
Line	Control (40-Ct)	S. enteritidis-treated (40-Ct)	Fold change^b	Control (40-Ct)	S. enteritidis-treated (40-Ct)	Fold change	Control (40-Ct)	S. enteritidis-treated (40-Ct)	Fold change
FF	11.6±0.6	11.9±1.0	1.8±0.8	16.7±0.6	16.8±0.7	1.2±0.5	18.2±0.03	13.5±0.4	0.04±0.01
SF	12.3±1.4	12.5±1.5	3.2±2.7	18.7±0.2	18.4±0.2	0.8±0.1	17.2±1.8	14.7±1.1	0.27±0.1
FM	10.7±0.5	10.5±0.6	1.0±0.4	16.3±0.2	16.6±0.4	1.3±0.3	20.7±0.1*	19.9±1.7	1.75±0.9
SM	11.3±0.5	11.3±1.1	1.8±0.8	18.4±0.2	18.0±0.4	0.8±0.2	16.0±1.7	19.0±0.7	9.83±3.7*
^aComparisons were made only between the females (SF and FF), and then a separate analysis for males (SM and FM). Statistical analyses (Student's t test) were performed using Microsoft® Excel 2000 (*P < 0.05).
^bFold change is calculated using the formula 2^(S. ^enteritidis ^corrected ^mean ^– ^control ^corrected ^mean).

Figure 3.  Two-day-old chickens were challenged orally with S. enteritidis (5×10⁶ CFU/chicken) and liver/spleen organ invasion was determined using standard microbiological techniques. Data are pooled from 90 chickens and presented as the mean±standard error of the mean of triplicate organ invasion experiments. Data shown are the percentages obtained from the number of S. enteritidis-positive chickens/90. All comparisons are between females (FF vs SF) or between males (FM vs SM) (*P < 0.05).