Testing to Develop Normals on Newborn Crias, from Birth to Weaning

Forty newborn crias were monitored for IgG levels every 3 weeks until weaning. Due to schedule conflicts some period bleeds were omitted. All of these crias were born between 1995 and 1996 in the Pacific Northwest (of the United States of America). A total of 5 crias were transfused by intraperitoneal infusion to raise their passive transfer above our required 800 mg/dl. All tests were done on Triple J Camelid RID kits. Test kits manufactured by other laboratories may not necessarily agree with these numbers.

Historical numbers accumulated from previous studies were similar to these colostrum, 24 hours passive transfer titers and weaning titers. Sickness or death did not occur in any of the crias involved in this study. The table below shows that IgG levels routinely dropped after 24 hours with the average lows between 9 and 15 weeks.

In a separate study currently underway, five animals were supplemented with 28 grams of Bovine IgG within the first 3 hours after birth. At 24 hours Bovine IgG  levels averaged 1245 mg/dl, on day 7 levels averaged 621 mg/dl and on day 30 levels were only 117 mg/dl. Parallel titers of Camelid IgG levels from the same 5 nursing crias averaged 2081 mg/dl at 24 hours, 1591 mg/dl at 7 days and 980 mg/dl at day 30. This may indicate that non-species specific IgG disappears from crias blood at a faster rate than Camelid specific IgG.

Table of Data

 

# Of Animals
Average Titer
mg/dl
Standard Diviation
mg/dl
Lowest Titer
mg/dl
Highest Titer
mg/dl
Colostrum 26 1173 6080 6260 27,210
Historical Colostrum 292 16,315 6377 2000 35,000
24hr Titer 40 1976 860 805 4000
3 Week 16 903 159 668 1163
6 Week 27 781 320 240 1829
9 Week 26 674 249 303 1418
12 Week 31 668 230 303 1246
15 Week 29 660 233 260 1078
18 Week 27 748 230 260 1133
21 Week 24 905 340 476 1892
24 Week 25 981 347 484 1649
Weaning 15 1044 407 615 1829
Historical Weaning 189 819 303 372 2266
Transfused 5 1517 211 1133 1760
Weights 40 27 lb. 4.3 lb. 18 lb. 37 lb.

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