Surgical bursectomy of 1-day-old chicks, with or without total-body X irradiation, did not influence mortality from Marek's disease induced by the HPRS-16 (Houghton Poultry Research Station) strain of virus. The production of Marek×s disease in chickens with varying degrees of impairment of the bursal lymphoid system, including some chickens which apparently lacked antibodies, immunoglobulins, germinal centers, and plasma cells, suggested that the bursa and the bursa-dependent lymphoid tissues were not essential in the pathogenesis of the disease.
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Payne et al. (1970) studied this question.