Neutrophils and monocytes in cattle express a novel class of immunoglobulin Fc receptor, specific for bovine IgG2 (bIgG2), termed bFc␥2R. In cows, the ability of neutrophils to kill immunoglobulin-opsonized microorganisms appears to depend largely on this subclass, whose interaction with bFc␥2R initiates the killing process. bFc␥2R is a transmembrane glycoprotein consisting of two extracellular immunoglobulin-like domains, followed by a 19-amino acid membrane-spanning region and a short cytoplasmic tail. Although related to other mammalian Fc␥Rs, bFc␥2R belongs to a novel gene family that includes the human killer cell inhibitory receptor and Fc␣RI (CD89) proteins. We have shown previously (Morton, H. C., van Zandbergen, G., van Kooten, C., Howard, C. J., van de Winkel, J. G., and Brandtzaeg, P. (1999) J. Exp. Med. 189, 1715-1722) that like these proteins (and unlike other Fc␥Rs), bFc␥2R binds bIgG2 via the membrane-distal extracellular domain 1 (EC1). In this present study, we introduced mutations into the predicted loop regions of the EC1 domain and assayed the resulting bFc␥2R mutants for their ability to bind bIgG2. Our results indicated that the bIgG2 binding site lies within the predicted F-G loop region of the EC1 domain. Furthermore, single amino acid mutational analysis of this region identified Phe-82 and Trp-87 as being critical for bIgG2 binding.