The underlying hereditary nature of the chicken's immunological status is of great importance for furthering the understanding of the response of the immune system as well as for maximizing the efficiency of poultry production. For these reasons there is strong scientific and commercial interest in typing the major histocompatibility complex (MHC or B complex). Thus far, most MHC typing has been based on blood typing using serological reagents. Although this method is simple, it has several drawbacks including the formidable task of producing antisera for 27 different B alleles and the problems of cross reactivity. Characterization of the chicken MHC at the molecular level has provided new opportunities for developing typing reagents. We propose to develop an alternative method for MHC typing using DNA amplification and allele-specific oligonucleotide probes.
Anticipated Results:This study is designed to indicate whether DNA amplification and oligonucleotide probe technology can be used to type the chicken MHC. A PCR-based genetic typing kit is currently available for the human HLA-DQA1 locus, and there is a trend in the animal breeding industry toward using more molecular approaches. The MHC is linked with important economic traits such as disease resistance, egg production, mortality, and feed efficiency. MHC typing offers poultry breeders an opportunity to examine the genotype directly which will provide an advantage for selecting breeders for the next generation by removing unknown environmental effects. Direct MHC selection may increase genetic progress, improve production efficiency and improve quality of products for consumers.
