Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:42:43.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variations in immunoglobulin concentrations in Merino and Scottish Blackface lambs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

R. Halliday
R. Halliday
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
Get access

Summary

The concentrations of maternal immunoglobulin in 2-day-old lambs varied widely. They were significantly correlated with the lengths of pregnancy and the serum protein concentrations of the adult female sheep (ewes), but not with the colostrum immunoglobulin concentrations, nor with the weights or ratios of weights of the lambs and ewes. The mean concentrations were as high in Merino as in Blackface lambs.

Although there was some evidence that colostrum production was higher in ewes with twins than in ewes with single lambs, the immunoglobulin concentrations in the lambs fell significantly as litter size increased. They were significantly higher in male than in female twins, and in twins from litters containing both sexes than in twins from litters of one sex, but the difference between single males and females was not significant. Nor was the difference between the first and second born of each pair of twins. Twins and triplets born to ewes aged 7 years or more had particularly low concentrations. No other effects of the age of the ewe were found. The concentrations fell significantly as the date of lambing during the season advanced, and there were significant annual variations which could not be attributed to the weather. The correlation coefficients for the concentrations in lambs born to the same ewe in successive years were 0·309 and 0·298 (P < 0·001), respectively, for Merino and Blackface lambs.

The mean concentration in lambs which died subsequently from infections was significantly lower than in the surviving lambs, but many lambs with very low concentrations survived.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , December 1974 , pp. 301 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, G. and Davies, H. L. 1959. Relationship of milk production to number of lambs born or suckled. Aust. J. agric. Res. 10: 720–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohren, H. U. and Wenner, V. R. 1961. Natural state of milk proteins. 1. Composition of the micellar soluble casein of milk after ultricentrifugal sedimentation. J. Dairy Sci. 44: 1213–1223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalgarno, A., Godden, W. and McCarthy, E. F. 1950. The effect of high and low plane feeding on the serum protein levels of pregnant ewes, foetuses and young lambs. Biochem.J. 46: 162–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Georgiev, S. 1969. Age (ontogenic) changes in the protein fractions content in the blood serum of lambs. Veterinarnomeditsinski Nauki, 6: 53–60.Google Scholar
Halliday, R. 1968. Serum protein concentrations in 2-day-old Finnish Landrace, Scottish Blackface, Merino and Merino × Cheviot lambs. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71: 41–46.Google Scholar
Halliday, R. 1971. Total serum protein and immunoglobulin concentrations in Scottish Blackface and Merino lambs at birth and during the first two days of suckling. J. agric. Set, Camb. 77: 463–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundqvist, K. 1963. Absorption of orally administered antibodies in lambs. Proc. 9th Nord. Vet. Congr., Copenhagen, 1962, Vol. 1, pp. 283–286.Google Scholar
McCance, I. and Alexander, G. 1959. The onset of lactation in the Merino ewe and its modification by nutritional factors. Aust. J. agric. Res. 10: 699–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, E. F. and McDougall, E. I. 1953. Absorption of immune globulin by the young lamb after ingestion of colostrum. Biochem. J. 55: 177–182.Google Scholar
Mason, J. H., Dalling, T. and Gordon, W. S. 1930. Transmission of maternal immunity. J. Path. Bact. 33: 783–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osebold, J. W., Aalund, O. and Murphy, F. A. 1965. The gamma globulins of sheep. Fedn Proc. Fedn. Am. Socs exp. Biol. 24: 503 (Abstr.).Google Scholar