Vaccination against Marek's disease (MD) is greatly enhanced by host genetic resistance. Genes of the growth hormone (GH) axis have been reported to affect the ontogeny and effector functions of cells of the immune system. Two strains of White Leghorn chickens bred for contrasting homozygous markers in the GH and GH receptor (GHR) genes were challenged with MDV. Contrasts for the significant interaction between marker genotype and tissue indicated that the GH/GHR marker genotype caused a shift in the distribution of the viral load in lymphoid tissues in the two strains. The analysis suggests that genetic variations in genes of the GH axis may differentially affect the host response to MDV replication in lymphoid tissues. Regarding the early time course of infection, at day 6 the viral load was highest in the thymus, while at day 10, it was highest in the spleen, indicating that the virus may have accumulated in the spleen or was continuing to replicate in this tissue. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33420 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Linher, Katja. |
| Contributors | Kuhnlein, Urs (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Animal Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001782946, proquestno: MQ70727, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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