Abstract
Small ruminants, like goats, would make excellent animal models for not only infectious diseases in large ruminants but also analogous diseases in humans, such as human tuberculosis, Crohn’s disease, melioidosis and brucellosis. The main disadvantage for the small ruminant model is the lack of sufficient baseline data on normal, healthy goat kids. Furthermore, most reagents (antibodies and the like) were not developed for goats or sheep. It is important to demonstrate that available resources, especially from the bovine system, cross-react with the caprine and/or ovine system. Finally, potential breed differences have to be evaluated before goat or sheep studies are compared. In this study, leukocyte cell populations were defined in twenty-six dairy goat kids via flow cytometry. We report no significant differences between three breeds of dairy goat kids and demonstrate the effective use of various antibodies for caprine immune cell markers. No breed-specific differences were detected for any leukocyte cell population or for markers specific for various antigen-presenting cells or T cell populations. Interestingly, however, statistical significant differences were found for leukocyte cell populations for the two different time points two weeks apart presented in this study.
Highlights
Animal models are key elements in evaluating advantages over other animal models (financial pathogenicity and virulence of various bacterial and restrictions, availability of various reagents, presence of viral agents (Horvat, 2009; Ross et al, 2012; Hibiya et al, various mouse strains), but, in the case of infectious
Leukocyte cell populations were defined in twenty-six dairy goat kids via flow cytometry
We report no significant differences between three breeds of dairy goat kids and demonstrate the effective use of various antibodies for caprine immune cell markers
Summary
Animal models are key elements in evaluating advantages over other animal models (financial pathogenicity and virulence of various bacterial and restrictions, availability of various reagents, presence of viral agents (Horvat, 2009; Ross et al, 2012; Hibiya et al, various mouse strains), but, in the case of infectious. Many different breeds exist within these groups and it is not known yet how their immune system is organized and might react to certain pathogens. It is not known if data from various goat breeds can be compared or if their healthy immune systems fundamentally differ. With the trend of using small ruminants as key animal models for ruminant infectious diseases, it is important to discover and evaluate any potential breed differences to allow for better breed selection for animal studies and comparison of various studies and their conclusions using different breeds. Flow cytometry has played a stronger role in describing various cell populations of animals in models other than the mouse model
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