Immunology, birds

Holloway J, Scheuhammer AM, Chan HM. 2003. Assessment of white blood cell phagocytosis as an immunological indicator of methyhnercury exposure in birds. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 44 493-501. 

No data were found on the effects of silver compounds on avian or mammalian wildlife. All controlled studies with silver were with domestic poultry, livestock, or small laboratory mammals. Signs of chronic silver ion intoxication in tested birds and mammals included cardiac enlargement, vascular hypertension, hepatic necrosis, anemia, lowered immunological activity, altered membrane permeability, kidney pathology, enzyme inhibition, growth retardation, and a shortened life span (Smith and Carson 1977 Freeman 1979 Fowler and Nordberg 1986 USPHS 1990). 

To assess the certainty with which the extent of difference in amino acid sequence can be inferred from immunological distance, we have estimated prediction intervals for five kinds of monomeric proteins. These estimates are made possible by the extensive calibration work done in our laboratory on proteins of known amino acid sequence. This chapter then uses prediction intervals to test the robustness of hypotheses about phene-tic relationships among monomeric proteins of mammals, frogs, and birds. The probabilities of arriving at various conclusions by chance range from 1 in 20 to 1 in 10 billion. 

Example 9. Only about 30 years ago some authorities considered penguins so distinctive in anatomy and way of life as to classify them in a superorder separate from all other bird orders 23 If this were the case, the proteins of ducks and loons should be more similar to each other than those from either group are to penguin proteins. The immunological evidence obtained with four different proteins indicates that the chances are about 1 in 10 billion that this expectation will be fulfilled. Instead, penguin proteins are very similar to those of loons. 

Example 10. Tinamous, unlike ratites, have a keel on the sternum, but they do share with ratites the paleognathous palate and unique bill structure.24 This final example in Table III thus reflects the past uncertainty as to whether tinamous are phylogenetically allied with ratites or possibly with gallinaceous birds exemplified by the chicken. The immunological work firmly supports a tinamou-ratite grouping. 

Birds and mammals have additional immunological mechanisms and can produce antibodies. Rates of antibody production, the existence of antibodies against specific challenges, and other measures of antibody-mediated immunological responses should prove useful in these organisms. 

Wadhwa, M., Bird, C., Dilger, P., Gaines Das, R., and Thorpe, R. (2003) Strategies for detection, measurement and characterization of unwanted antibodies induced by thera peutic biologicals. Journal of Immunological Methods, 278, 1 17. 

Bird, C. The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens The True Story of the Efforts to Suppress an Alternative Treatment for Cancer, AIDS, and Other Immunologically Based Diseases. Edited by Nancy Carleton. Tiburon, CA H.J. Kramer. 

The first section deals with protein, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, its hormonal control and the adaptations that occur in birds. The second covers the avian genome, gene expression and avian immunology. Growth and em-bryological development are also discussed. 

Immunologically reactive or immunocompetent cells are lymphocytes which, together with granulocytes and erythrocytes, originate from common hemopoietic stem cells (Wu et al. 1967). The sites of primary lymphopoiesis are the bursa of Fabricius (in birds) and the thymus in mammals no bursa has been found but an equivalent organ is inferred (Mitchell and Miller 1968 Perey et al. 1968 Owen and Ritter 1969). Lymphocytes which differentiate within the thymus independent of antigenic influence become thymus-derived or thymus-processed lymphocytes, so-called T-cells. It is now generally accepted that a cooperation between T-cells and bursa-equivalent lymphocytes (B-cells) is necessary for induction of IgM... 

Although all species of bird previously studied produce only one form of lysozyme in the egg-white, two distinct lysozymes have been isolated from the whites of black swans (Cygnus atratus) eggs. The molecular weight, amino-acid sequence, specific activity, and immunological cross-reactivity of one of them are similar to those of the egg-white lysozymes of hen, duck, and many other birds, whereas those of the other form (mol. wt. 2.05 x 10 ) are not. However, the iV-terminal amino-acid sequence and immunological cross-reactivities are... 

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