Infectious bronchitis and infectious bursal disease: Evaluation of maternal antibody level on day-old chick

The aim of this study was to determine the maternal antibody in terms of Infectious Bronchitis (IB) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) in newly-hatched chicks at the spread of hatching time. 90 samples each of residual yolk sac and blood serum from newly-hatched chicks taken from three different periods of hatching hatch windows group (HW): HW-1 (33-23 h before pull chick); HW-2 (23-13 h before pull chick); and HW-3 (13 h before pull chick) were used in this study. Indirect ELISA method was performed to measure IB and IBD antibody titer. The values of IB and IBD titer were statistically analyzed using Two-Way ANOVA followed by LSD test. Interestingly, this study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between the three hatch window groups in terms of the yolk sac of IB and IBD maternal antibody level, but there was statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) in terms of IB and IBD maternal antibody level in blood serum between the three HW groups. In sum, it can be concluded that HW-2 (23-13h before pull chick) is the most effective hatching time in terms of IB and IBD maternal antibody level.