The role of corticosterone in the regulation of the cellular composition of chicken blood during the stress reaction

The influence of hen layer density on the variability of the number of red blood cells, heterophiles and lymphocytes in the blood, the secretory activity of adrenal glands, estimated by the level of corti-costerone and cortisol, as well as the presence of interrelations between hormones and blood cells by calculating complex indices, were studied. Chickens, as the research object, were kept in cages, under conditions of standard layer density and increased by 1.5 and 2.0 times. We found that chickens adapt to an increase in layer density by one and a half times, pro-vided that egg production decreases to 33.33%; two times exceed of the regulatory requirements for laying does not correspond to the adaptive abilities of birds. Depending on the level of layer density excess (stress factor) in chicken blood, the concentration of corticosterone and cortisol increases, determining a decrease in the number of lymphocytes and an in-crease in heterophiles against the background of the preservation of red blood cells, reflecting the “energy price” of adaptation. Corticosterone af-fects the relationship of red blood cells with lymphocytes and heterophiles, determining the variability of the values of the indices reflecting the ratio of red blood cells and lymphocytes (ISEL), red blood cells and hetero-philes (ISEG), red blood cells, lymphocytes and corticosterone (ISELC), red blood cells, heterophiles and corticosterone (ISEGC) and the integral index of red blood cells-heterophiles-lymphocytes and corticosterone (IIEGLC).