Relationship of calf antibody status to disease and performance

Abstract

Three tests were used to measure the circulating immunoglobulin in 381 purchased calves as they entered a commercial calf-rearing unit. A correlation of 0.64 was found between the zinc sulphate turbidity (ZST) test and a quantitative latex agglutination test (LAT) measuring IgG1 (P less than 0.001). A qualitative version of the LAT related poorly to the quantitative version. The proportion of plasma samples identified by the quantitative LAT as having an IgG1 concentration of less than 5 g/litre which were incorrectly identified as positives (greater than or equal to 5 g/litre) by the qualitative LAT was 0.65. The proportion of plasma samples identified by the quantitative LAT as having a IgG1 concentration of greater than or equal to 5 g/litre which were incorrectly identified as negative (less than 5 g/litre) was 0.11. There was no statistically significant relationship between plasma IgG1 concentration and initial liveweight, subsequent overall daily liveweight gain or disease incidence (P greater than 0.05). Calves treated for infectious disease, particularly respiratory disease after weaning, had statistically significantly lower liveweight gains than healthy calves (P less than 0.001).

Relationship between passive immunity and morbidity and weight gain in dairy cattle

“…Studies by SAIF & SMITH, (1985) suggested that protection against rotavirus was not consistently associated with passive immunity. The results of our study were also in agreement with other studies (TOOD & WHITE, 1995;RAJALA & CASTRÉN, 1995;CALDOW et al, 1988) where no association could be found between passive immunity status and morbidity attributable to diarrhea. It is likely that Igs are more effective in preventing diarrhea when acting locally in the gastrointestinal tract and this may explain, as suggested by CALDOW et al (1988), the lack of significant relationship between serum Ig levels and morbidity by diarrhea in several studies.…”

“…The weight gain performance in dairy cattle is of utmost importance since it directly influences the age at first calving . However, other researchers have not been able to demonstrate such consequences of FPT (CALDOW et al, 1988;RAJALA & CASTRÉN, 1995;REA et al, 1996;TOOD & WHITE, 1995).…”

“…According to PERINO et al (1993), FPT is a serious and present problem in calves and although some of the factors that interfere with passive transfer are well known, FPT is still an obstacle to productivity. Several researchers have suggested threshold levels of serum Ig that could be considered adequate for the maintenance of health and growth performance in calves, but these concentrations are not universally accepted yet (CALDOW et al, 1988;ROBISON et al, 1988). The diagnosis of FPT is not well defined and the established values for its diagnosis may lead to incorrect decisions (GARRY et al, 1993).…”

Associations between passive immunity and morbidity and mortality in dairy heifers in Florida, USA

“…The neonatal calf, which is born with little or no humoral immunity, is totally dependent upon absorption of colostrally-derived immunoglobulins for its early disease resistance (Tizard, 1996;Duhamel and Osburn, 1984). A 2-to 4-fold increase in mortality in calves with failure of passive transfer (FPT) compared to those that have received adequate amounts of colostral immunoglobulins has been reported (MCEWZUI et al, 1970;Boyd, 1972;McGuire et al, 1976;Caldow et al, 1988;Robison et al, 1988).…”

“…With respect to neonatal calf diarrhea, the effects of passive immunity are less clear. Results of epidemiological and experimental studies are divided between those showing no effect (McEwan et al, 1970;Caldow et al, 1988;Harp et al, 1989) and those demonstrating a reduction in incidence and severity of diarrhea and/or a decrease in mortality attributable to enteritis (Boyd et al, 1974;Fallon et al, 1987). These discrepancies can be explained mainly by differences in the primary causative organism involved.…”