BACKGROUND: Amid growing concern about antimicrobial resistance due to the irrational use of antibiotics in treating common poultry diseases, particularly METHODS: Two hundred and forty day-old Hubbard classic chickens were randomly assigned to four groups: non-challenged control (NC), and RESULT: The gene expression analysis at 3 and 21 days post-challenge revealed that SGC birds had significantly higher SOCS3, P20K, and lower MHC class IIβ expression ( CONCLUSION: In conclusion, these findings suggest that