Mode of inheritance of unselected traits in lines of chickens selected for high or low antibody response to sheep red blood cells. 1. Resistance to marble spleen disease virus and juvenile body weight

Two lines of White Leghorns that had undergone long-term selection for high (HH) or low (LL) antibody response to sheep red blood cell antigen(s) formed the nuclear lines for this experiment. Matings were made in a full diallel cross to produce in a single hatch from age-contemporary breeders the parental lines, reciprocal F-1 and F-2 crosses, and backcrosses for 16 progeny types. For males and females, there were parental line differences in BW to 42 d of age, after which there was a decline between lines for males. Differences in BW between reciprocal F-1 crosses and maternal heterosis declined with age, primarily reflecting dissipation of effects of egg weight. Heterosis of BW was dependent on the particular F-1 cross and recombination effects were not important. At 50 d of age chicks were inoculated with either a 1 or 10% suspension of spleen extract from chickens infected with marble spleen disease virus (MSDV). A third group served as uninjected controls. Response to MSDV was evaluated by spleen weight 6 d after inoculation. Spleen weights relative to BW of control chicks were heavier for the HH than LL line with evidence from the crosses of sex-linkage and negative heterosis. Line LL chicks were more resistant to MSDV than Line WH chicks with F-1 crosses intermediate to and different from either parental line with no evidence of heterosis.