A survey of passive immune transfer failure prevalence in neonatal calves in Neyshabour rural farms

Calves with failure of passive immunity transfer are susceptible to septicemia and enteric and respiratory disease. Some studies have shown that failure of passive immunity transfer affects animal performance even in older ages. The aim of this study was to evaluate the failure of passive immunity transfer in calves in the traditional farms of Neyshabour. For this purpose, in 3th day after birth, blood samples were gathered from 98 calves. The results showed that mean total protein is 6.46 ± 1/06 gr/dl. There was a significant difference in total protein concentration in male and female calves (p=0.004). Serum total protein concentration was less than 5.2 gr/dl only in 6 of calves (6.1%). 5 of them were male (9% of male calves) and only one case (6.2% heifers) was female. The mean serum globulin in examined calves was 3.37 ± 1.12 gr/dl. There was a significant difference in globulin concentration in male and female calves (P=0.006). It indicates that more immunoglobulin absorption has been happened in the female calves. The amount of IgG was classified as 1 (week transfer), 2 (moderate transfer) and 3 (good transfer). Passive transfer was done good in 93.9% calves and the rest of the cases (6.1%) had a moderate passive transfer. There was a significant and high association between total protein and globulin (P0.01, r= 0.968).