Immunomodulatory effect of a rodent bone marrow cytokine in improving antibody response in Newcastle disease vaccinated chicks

Outbreak of Newcastle disease (ND) in spite of vaccination is not infrequen t in India. To abrogate this vaccine failure condition a nonspecies specifi c 12.7 kD immunomodulatory cytokine (BIM) is used. One drop of BIM (conc. 0 .3 mu g/25 mu l) was applied via nasal or ocular route on 5th and 11th day post R2B vaccination and antibody to ND virus was assayed after 2 and 6 wee ks of vaccination. The mean antibody (Ab) titre at 2 weeks past-vaccination of control chicks was I in 517.7 while the vaccinated BIM treated group ha d a mean Ab titre of 1 in 1821 (p<0.001) indicating that the flock immunity of the BIM treated chicks with respect to R2B vaccination is more at 2 wee ks compared to only vaccinated group. At 6 weeks both the groups have compa rable Ab titre (control 1 in 2132, BIM 1 in 1898). BIM is heat stable which dispense the use of cold chain. This immunomodulatory role of BIM opens up a new cytokine based immunopotentiation in chicks.