Immune Response and Pasteurella Resistance in Rabbits Fed Diets Containing Various Amounts of Black Cumin Seeds
- 1 University of Khartoum, Sudan
- 2 King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Problem statement: The consumption of black cumin (Nigella sativa) seed has immunomodulatory and anti-bacterial activity, but in rabbits this had not yet been tested. Approach: In the present studies, rabbits were fed diets without or with black cumin seed and antibody production, phagocytotic activity, hypersensitivity and resistance against Pasteurellosis were assessed. Results: Feeding black cumin seed significantly increased serum concentrations of antibodies in response to intramusculary injected serum bovine albumin. Blood derived from rabbits fed the diets containing either 15 or 20% black cumin seed significantly reduced the growth of Staphylococcus aureus on sheep-blood agar plates. Skin thickness as index of hypersensitivity towards tuberculin was significantly reduced at 48 h after intradermal injection of the agent. Ingestion of black cumin seed significantly extended survival time after intraperitoneal administration of Pasteurella multocida. Conclusion: The feeding of black cumin seed to rabbits stimulated their immune system, but did not enhance inflammation.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajavsp.2010.163.167
Copyright: © 2010 Nabiela M. El Bagir, Imtitha T.O. Farah, Safia M.B. Elhag, Ahmed Alhaidary, Hasab E. Mohamed and Anton C. Beynen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Rabbits
- antibody production
- phagocytosis
- hypersensitivity
- Pasteurellosis
- black cumin