The Use of Egg Yolk Antibodies for Food Protection and Immunity

The chicken immune system has been studied for many years and these studies have contributed substantially to our understanding of the fundamental concepts of immunology and the development of different immunoglobulin classes. It is thus surprising that only a small fraction of the antibodies presently used in laboratories are of avian origin. Laying hen produces more yolk antibodies than a rabbit can produce during the same time period, and the animal care costs are lower for the chicken compared to the rabbit. Chicken antibodies offer many advantages to the traditional mammalian antibodies when used for the detection of mammalian antigen. Chicken antibodies can also be used to avoid interference in immunological assays caused by the human complement system, rheumatoid factors, human anti-mouse IgG antibodies or human and bacterial Fc-receptors.