1] Methods of bursectomy

Abstract

This chapter explores that bursectomy helps to reduce or eliminate humoral immunity. It reviews historical and recent experiments with the bursa. It also critiques the various methods of bursectomy such as surgical bursectom and hormonal bursectomy. The chapter discusses that surgical bursectomy performed at hatch is more effective than the bursectomy performed at later ages. However, numerous investigators have reported that chicks bursectomized at hatch respond to a secondary and tertiary injection of antigen. The chapter also discusses that hormonal bursectomy may be effected by dipping eggs in steroid solutions. The dipping technique will either eliminate the bursa in the hatched chick or markedly reduce its size with general hypertrophy of epithelial cells and inhibition of bursal lymphopoiesis.