Application of transmission infrared spectroscopy and partial least squares regression to predict immunoglobulin G concentration in dairy and beef cow colostrum.

The objective of this study was to explore the potential of transmission infrared (TIR) spectroscopy in combination with partial least squares regression (PLSR) for quantification of dairy and beef cow colostral immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration and assessment of colostrum quality. A total of 430 colostrum samples were collected from dairy (n = 235) and beef (n = 195) cows and tested by a radial immunodiffusion (RID) assay and TIR spectroscopy. Colostral IgG concentrations obtained by the RID assay were linked to the preprocessed spectra and divided into combined and prediction data sets. Three PLSR calibration models were built: one for the dairy cow colostrum only, the second for beef cow colostrum only, and the third for the merged dairy and beef cow colostrum. The predictive performance of each model was evaluated separately using the independent prediction data set. The Pearson correlation coefficients between IgG concentrations as determined by the TIR-based assay and the RID assay were 0.84 for dairy cow colostrum, 0.88 for beef cow colostrum, and 0.92 for the merged set of dairy and beef cow colostrum. The average of the differences between colostral IgG concentrations obtained by the RID- and TIR-based assays were -3.5, 2.7, and 1.4 g/L for dairy, beef, and merged colostrum samples, respectively. Further, the average relative error of the colostral IgG predicted by the TIR spectroscopy from the RID assay was 5% for dairy cow, 1.2% for beef cow, and 0.8% for the merged data set. The average intra-assay CV% of the IgG concentration predicted by the TIR-based method were 3.2%, 2.5%, and 6.9% for dairy cow, beef cow, and merged data set, respectively.The utility of TIR method for assessment of colostrum quality was evaluated using the entire data set and showed that TIR spectroscopy accurately identified the quality status of 91% of dairy cow colostrum, 95% of beef cow colostrum, and 89% and 93% of the merged dairy and beef cow colostrum samples, respectively. The results showed that TIR spectroscopy demonstrates potential as a simple, rapid, and cost-efficient method for use as an estimate of IgG concentration in dairy and beef cow colostrum samples and assessment of colostrum quality. The results also showed that merging the dairy and beef cow colostrum sample data sets improved the predictive ability of the TIR spectroscopy.