Effects of Methionine and Valine on Growth and Antibody Production in Chicks Infected with Live or Killed Newcastle Disease Virus

Abstract

IN PREVIOUS experiments (Bhargava et al., 1970) it was reported that the antibody titer was higher for chicks receiving 0.3 to 0.6% l-methionine levels than for chicks receiving 0.7 to 1.1% l-methionine. The optimum requirement of methionine for growth was about 0.7% while for antibody production it was considerably lower. The reverse was true with valine. As the level of valine in the diet was increased, the antibody titer increased. The requirement of valine for maximum growth response was 0.9% but for optimum antibody production it was higher. Gill and Gershoff (1967), using synthetic antigen, have reported that antibody production was increased by methionine deficiency and decreased by excess methionine in monkeys. However, in 1968, Gershoff et al. did not observe any change in antibody production in rats due to deficiency or excess of methionine using synthetic antigen or sheep red blood cell antigen. Ishiguro and Koyanagi (1968) observed that…