Fowl cholera; cross-protective turkey antisera and IgG antibodies induced with Pasteurella multocida-infected tissue bacterins.

Turkey antisera induced with formolized Pasteurella multocida-infected tissues (T antisera) passively cross-immunized 48 of 55 chickens against a challenge dose of P. multocida organisms, from which 0 of 15 controls survived. However, turkey antisera induced with formalin-killed, agar-cultured P. multocida cells (A antisera) passively cross-immunized only 4 of 30 chickens. Cross-immunity refers to protection against a different immunologic type of P. multocida. Quantitative precipitin reactions of the A and T antisera with antigens from agar-cultured cells showed that more antibody was present in the A than in the T antisera. However, antigens extracted from the infected tissues reacted with the T and not with the A antisera in the Ouchterlony procedure, demonstrating qualitative differences between the agar-cultured antigens and those extracted from the infected tissue. The gel precipitins isolated from the A and T antisera were characterized as 7S immunoglobulins, which behaved in immunoelectrophoresis as would be expected for a IgG immunoglobulin. The IgG fraction from the T antiserum passively cross-immunized chickens almost as well as the whole antiserum; hence, the IgG antibody is a major factor in cross-immunity.