Effect of Methionine Deficiency on Histological Features of Selective Immune Organs in Japanese Quail

Methionine (Met) being the first limiting amino acid in maize/soybean-based quail diets, its supplementation provides scope for improvement of protein quality and reduction of dietary protein concentration.

To evaluate the effects of methionine deficiencyon histology of selective lymphatic organs of Japanese quail, 20 one-day old quails were randomly allocated into 2 groups of 10 birds. One group received methionine deficientdietwhile another group of birds was fed withstandard diet as control. After 6 weeks, all birds were sacrificed and bursa of Fabricius, thymus, caecal tonsils and spleen were removed immediately and after processing by routine histological methods.

Histomorphometric assays were performed by Axio vixion Rel4.8 software. Data were expressed as Mean±SD. Data analysis was performed by Independent samples T test method and differences considered statistically different at p<0.05. Results showed that dietary methionin deficiency adversely affects histological features of bursa of Fabricius, caecal tonsils and thymus that causes statistically decreasein the plicae height and follicle numbers in bursa of Fabricius, decrease in follicular number of nodular unit of caecal tonsils and decrease in lobular width ofthymus. Whereasspleen showed no changes in their histological aspects.

It would be possible that above reduced parameters are caused by a reduction in cell production although rising in migration and transferring abilities of cells to their peripheral tissues may also be important. Thelack of considerable changes in the spleen may be due to compensatory mechanisms that require further investigation to determine the definitive cause of these events.