Comparative Effects of Honey and Multivitamin on the Immune Response of Cockerel Chicks to Vaccination Against new castle Disease (ND) Using Live Attenuated and “Lasota” Vaccine

The comparative effects of honey and commercially available multivitamin (Vitaflash ® , Kepro B.V. Holland) on the haemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody response of cockerel chicks to oral vaccination against Newcastle disease (ND) at 3 weeks of age using live attenuated ND ‘LaSota' vaccine was investigated. Sixty (60) day - old cockerel chicks were purchased and reared to 2 weeks of age. The chicks were randomly divided into six groups (A, B, C, D, E 1 and E 2 ) with 10 chicks per group. Chicks in group A were placed on honey for 7 days prior to vaccination and 7 days following vaccination, while chicks in group B were placed on honey f or 7 days following vaccination. Similarly chicks in group C were placed on multivitamin (Vitaflash ® , Kepro B.V. Holland) for 7 days prior to vaccination and 7 days following vaccination while chicks in group D were placed on the multivitamin for 7 days fo llowing vaccination. Chicks in group E 1 (positive control) were place on plain drinking water ad libitum but were vaccinated at 3 weeks of age, while chicks in group E 2 (negative control) received neither treatment nor vaccination but were fed and placed on plain drinking water add libitum until the end of the experiment. Chicks in group A exhibited the highest ND HI antibody titre with a geometric mean titre (GMT) of 181.0, followed by chicks in group C that exhibited a significantly (P<0.05) lower ND HI ti tre with a GMT of 127.9. Chicks in groups E 1 and E 2 did not show any significant antibody titre throughout the period of the experiment. The high antibody titre demonstrated by chicks that were treated with honey before and after vaccination is an indicati on that honey could be a possible immune enhancer. A more detailed study is therefore required on the quantitative assessment of honey for antibody response in chicks.