Effect of colostrum administration practices on serum IgG in goat kids

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Abstract

Sixty Canary Caprine kids (30 males and 30 females) were assigned to three colostrum feeding managements, natural suckling (NS), hand-fed ad libitum colostrum (HALC) and restricted hand-fed colostrum (RHC). IgG concentrations were recorded in colostrum and kids serum at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 70, and 84 h of life. No significant differences in serum IgG concentrations were observed between kids receiving NS, HALC and RHC at any of the sampling times. Birth weight, prolificacy and sex were not significantly associated with serum IgG concentration. Kids that survived to completion of the experiment had significantly higher serum IgG concentrations than kids, which died. Higher correlations were founded between IgG feed and IgG serum levels.

Introduction

In ruminants, the placenta impedes the transfer of immunoglobulin from the dam to the fetus. Consequently, the consumption of colostrum by the progeny of these species holds a fundamental role in the acquisition of immunity.

Constant et al. (1994) asserted that goat kids are agammaglobulimic at birth; however, Guerrault (1990); Rabbani et al. (1990); Sherman et al. (1990) all hold those low concentrations of Ig serums are present at birth. Chen et al. (1999) reported a peak blood serum concentration of 3.33 g/dl 24 h after birth, while O'Brien and Sherman (1993) have defined failure of passive transfer in the kid as a serum IgG concentration less than 1.2 g/dl. Chen et al. (1999) observed lower levels of Ig in the blood of single born kids 1.43 g/dl than for twins 3.50 g/dl at 24 h of age. This finding contradicted the previous findings of Rabbani et al. (1990); Bekele et al. (1992). Both Chen et al. (1999); O'Brien and Sherman (1993) observed no significant relationship between the sex of kids and serum IgG concentrations after the ingestion of colostrums.

Dos Santos et al. (1994) found no relationship between colostral IgG concentration and serum IgG concentrations in day-old kids. Chen et al. (1999) observed significant differences in serum IgG concentrations between kids fed with high and low protein concentration colostrum (20 and 10 g/dl).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of three colostrum administration strategies on subsequent serum IgG concentrations in goat kids. An additional goal of the study was to determine whether birth weight was associated with serum IgG concentrations in kids following the ingestion of colostrums.

Section snippets

Material and methods

This study was carried out in the installations of the research farm, which belongs to the Faculty of Veterinary Studies of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain). The animals, which took part in the experiment, were 60 Canary Caprine Group (CCG) kids born to intensively housed female goats. Goats were supervised from 8:00 h to 23:00 h during the birthing season. Only kids, which resulted from observed parturitions, were enrolled in the study.

Kids

Results and discussion

No statistically significant differences were observed in birth weights among the three groups. The kids studied did not display any detectable concentrations of IgG in the blood at birth (Table 1). Colostrum administration practices were significantly associated with serum IgG concentrations at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 84 h of age (Table 1). Peak serum IgG concentrations were observed between 24 and 60 h in the NS, HALC and RHC groups (Table 1).

In smaller ruminants the establishment of the

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