~ 547 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2019; 8(2): 547-552 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.03 TPI 2019; 8(2): 547-552 © 2019 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 26-12-2018 Accepted: 30-01-2019 Pravesh Kumari Department of Veterinary Pathology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Pooja Kundu Department of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Sushma Kajal Department of Veterinary Pathology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India G Narang Department of Veterinary Pathology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Vikas Nehra Department of Veterinary Pathology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Deepika Lather Department of Veterinary Pathology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Correspondence Pooja Kundu Department of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India Effect of Spirulina feeding on biochemical parameters in infectious bursal disease vaccinated chickens Pravesh Kumari, Pooja Kundu, Sushma Kajal, G Narang, Vikas Nehra and Deepika Lather Abstract Infectious bursal disease (IBD) commonly known as Gumboro disease is a disease of global economic importance; manifested by inflammation and subsequent atrophy of the bursa of Fabricius and various degrees of immunosuppression. Various vaccination strategies have been applied in the field to control IBD. Live commercially available hot strains of vaccines for IBD lead to varying levels of immunosuppression which increases the bird’s vulnerability to various infections. The present study was conducted to observe the effect of Spirulina feeding on biochemical parameters of Infectious bursal disease vaccinated broiler chickens. One hundred and two day old chickens were reared up to 38 day of age. At the age of 10 days, chickens were divided randomly into four groups (groups A (33), B (27), C (21) and D (21) having different number of chickens. From 10 to 20 days, feed of all the chickens of group B and D was supplemented with probiotic Spirulina at the dose rate of 1.0% of feed (i.e. 1.0 g/ 100 gm of feed) whereas all chickens of group A and C were given feed without Spirulina supplementation. All the chickens of group C and D were vaccinated with IBDV intermediate plus strain vaccine at the age of 17 days whereas no vaccine was given to the chickens of groups A, and B. There was significantly lower activity of serum aspartate transaminase (AST) in Spirulina fed group however significantly higher activity was observed in IBD vaccinated alone group indicating that Spirulina acted as hepatoprotective agent. Serum alanine transaminase (ALT) activity was also lower in Spirulina supplemented groups. ALT activity was significantly higher in IBDV vaccinated group. Serum creatinine concentration was significantly higher in the vaccinated groups but it was more pronounced in IBD vaccinated group chickens without Spirulina. Similarly blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration in both the vaccinated groups chickens was higher, but more pronounced in IBD vaccinated alone group. Spirulina feeding reduced the activity of Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in IBD vaccinated chickens. On the basis of finding of present study it may be concluded that IBDV vaccination effect can be reduced by supplementation of Spirulina at 1.0 percent level in feed from 10 to 20 days of age along with IBD vaccine. Keywords: infectious bursal disease vaccine, broiler chickens, alanine transaminase, creatinine 1. Introduction Infectious bursal disease (IBD) commonly known as Gumboro disease is a disease of global economic importance [14] . IBD was first recognized as a distinct disease in 1957. Cosgrove described the disease as avian nephrosis on the basis of tubular degenerative lesions found in the kidneys of infected broiler chickens. The syndrome adopted the name Gumboro disease since the first outbreak occurred in and around the area of Gumboro, Delaware, USA [3] . The disease is characterized by the destruction of the lymphoid cells in the bursa of Fabricius as the virus replicates in differentiating B- lymphocytes [2] . Due to specific pathognomonic lesions produced in bursa of Fabricius, it was later termed as infectious bursal disease (IBD) [6] . The immunosuppressive effects of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infections were first described by Allen et al. [1] . The infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is classified in the Avibirnavirus genus of the family Birnaviridae [4, 5] . The disease is produced in broiler chicks between 3-6 weeks of age and immuno-suppression is the main consequence in infected chicks [9] . Vaccination plays an important role in the successful control of the disease but vaccination failure due to appearance of variant or newer strains of the virus in the recent times has also been reported [13] . Moreover, various attenuation levels of commercially available live vaccines for IBD lead to varying levels of immunosuppression increasing the bird’s vulnerability to various infections. Spirulina; a blue-green algae, is rich in essential amino acids, minerals,