Effect of surgical and chemical in ovo bursectomy on lymphocyte density scores and histological evaluations of primary and secondary lymphoid organs in hypertensive and hypotensive turkeys.

The effects of surgical and chemical in ovo bursectomy on the histology of primary and secondary lymphoid organs were studied in hypertensive and hypotensive lines of turkeys. The effects of bursectomy were measured by determining the presence of lymphatic nodules and the presence of lymphocytes in secondary lymphoid organs: spleen, cecal tonsil, Meckel's diverticulum, and Peyer's patches; as well as in the thymus and bursa of Fabricius. No treatment effect on splenic nodule formation occurred, but a significantly lower lymphocyte density score was present in the surgically bursectomized group. Both nodule formation and lymphocyte density scores for the cecal tonsil and Peyer's patches were significantly reduced in the surgically bursectomized and testosterone-treated groups as compared with the control and sham groups. The most consistent depression in lymphatic scores in both the surgically and chemically bursectomized groups occurred in the Peyer's patches followed by cecal tonsils and Meckel's diverticulum. As expected, there were no differences in thymocyte density scores. There was no consistent effect on lymphatic scores due to blood pressure selection; however, the hypertensive line showed significantly lower scores than the hypotensive line in the bursa, cecal tonsils, and Peyer's patches. No differences between the sexes were noted in any organ.