The role of the bursa of fabricius in antibody formation against poultry diseases in turkey poultry

1)The present investigation was carried out to study the role of bursa of fabric ius in turkey pOQlts.2) The removal of the bursa of fabricius from the firstday up to 14 days resulted in low production of agglu- tinin to palmonella g~llinarum-pullor~ infectionindicating that the age at which bursectomy was per-formed was more significant than the age at which the infection was carried out.3) Bur-s e c t omy on the first week of age significantly leadto higher mortality when infection was carried OQt oneor four weeks after bursectomy. Bursectomy on the sec-ond week of age significantly influenced the mortalitywhen the infection was carried out 4 weeks after bur- sectomy.4) Electrophoretic analysis of the sera from different groups of pOQlts showed no significant difference whenthese sera were analysed by the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.5) Detr~ination of the bursal involution time revealed .that the bUrsa grew rapidly in the first 19 weeks of age reaching a maximum weight at that age then decreased gradually till the end of experiment (52 weeks).