Abstract
It is critical that bovine maternal colostrum is fed to newborn calves during their first hours of life. Colostrum is the secretion a cow produces after mammary involution that is rich in various nutrients. In addition to the nutritive value for newborn calves, immunoglobulins are of interest due to their role in developing the naïve immune system of calves at birth. The process by which a calf acquires immunity via absorption of immunoglobulins is defined as passive immunity. When calves consume an adequate amount of immunoglobulins, they are classified as having successful passive immunity (SPI). In contrast, if they are deprived of adequate colostrum, they are considered to have had a failure of transfer of passive immunity (FPI). Transfer of passive immunity is assessed by measuring serum IgG concentrations at 24 to 48 h of age. The major factors that influence whether a calf has SPI or FPI are colostrum IgG concentration, quantity fed, and age of calf at colostrum feeding. Monitoring apparent efficiency of immunoglobulin absorption in calves is often recommended to evaluate overall colostrum management practices. Serum IgG analyses can be determined with direct (radial immunodiffusion) or indirect (refractometry) methods and used to assess SPI or FPI prevalence.
Highlights
Research into passive transfer of immunity started between 1892 and 1893 with work by Paul Ehrlich, who studied how maternal antibodies were transferred to newborn animals
A more recent review about colostrum composition by McGrath et al (2016) included components such as growth factors, cytokines, minerals, and pH, where they summarized how these components are variable in colostrum in comparison to mature milk
An indirect method that is widely used is the measurement of serum total protein (STP) by refractometry, which gives an estimation of IgG from total protein in the serum (Deelen et al, 2014; Thornhill et al, 2015; Elsohaby et al, 2019)
Summary
Research into passive transfer of immunity started between 1892 and 1893 with work by Paul Ehrlich, who studied how maternal antibodies were transferred to newborn animals. The major factors that affect colostral immunoglobulin absorption are immunoglobulin concentration in colostrum, total volume of colostrum offered at first feeding (Stott and Fellah, 1983), and the total grams of immunoglobulins consumed, and bacterial levels in colostrum (Gelsinger et al, 2015). It is common that research studies emphasize IgG concentration as one of the major elements in colostrum quality (Godden et al, 2009a; Elsohaby et al, 2017; Heinrichs et al, 2020), bacterial contamination should be included as its presence in colostrum has potential negative effects on newborn calves (Gelsinger et al, 2015). It has been reported that heating colostrum at 60°C for 30 or 60 min minimally decreases or does not affect IgG concentration, reduces bacterial count, and does not affect viscosity (Johnson et al, 2007; Elizondo-Salazar et al, 2010)
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