Effect of transportation and weaning on humoral immune responses of calves.

Transportation exposes cattle to stress and results in increased morbidity and mortality. An investigation was made of the effects of transport and another important stressor, weaning, on the immune function of calves by determining humoral immune responses to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH). In a 2 x 2 factorial designed experiment, suckled calves were either (1) weaned at housing (day 0) and not transported, (2) weaned at housing and transported, (3) weaned while still at pasture nine to 13 days prior to housing and not transported or (4) weaned at pasture and transported. All calves were immunized with KLH at housing (day 0) and serum samples were collected subsequently to determine class and subclass anti-KLH antibody responses (IgG1, IgG2, IgA and IgM) by direct ELISA. Increased anti-KLH IgG1 and IgG2 concentrations were shown in calves that were weaned prior to housing and transported on day 10 (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01 respectively). Transported calves had increased IgG1 concentrations on day 20 (P < 0.05) compared with calves that were not transported. However, calves weaned at housing and not transported had increased IgA and IgM responses on day 30 compared with the other groups of calves (P < 0.05). This study shows that transportation and weaning affect the humoral immune responses of suckler calves and that the effects persist for several weeks. However, the effects of the treatments were not consistent for all antibody classes measured.