Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Illite on Humoral Immunity against Salmonella typhimurium Flagella Antigen in Laying Hens

This study was carried out to investigate dietary effects of illite on humoral immune response against Salmonella typhimurium flagella in Hyline Brown laying hens. Total of twenty eight 36-week-old hens were divided into two groups; The first was fed commercial diet as control and the other was fed diet containing 2 % illite. Each group was divided into 2 sub-groups and then performed immunization of Salmonella flagella with different adjuvants which were Freund's adjuvant and croton oil. The rates of egg-production in all groups were normal range but no difference was found between illite-treated and untreated groups. The serum antibody titers of Freund's adjuvant-used subgroup in illite fed groups were significantly increased, especially from 6- to 9-week after 1 st immunization compared to those of control groups (p<0.05). And the antibody titers of croton oil-used subgroup in illite-fed groups were also significantly increased, especially at 4-, 6- and 7-week (p<0.05). The results demonstrated that the feeding illite stimulated the immune response against S. typhimurium flagella antigen in laying hens and suggest that the supplementation of illite to the poultry diets may support protective effects against bacterial infections such as Salmonellosis.