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