Effects of Sodium Selenite addition to goat colostrum on IgG immune passive transfer. Preliminary results

Abstract

According to previous studies in calves, selenium addition increased the absorption of IgG from colostrum. The present study tests the potential effect of selenium addition to goat colostrum on goat kid passive immune transfer. For the development of the experiment, 20 newborn Majorera goat kids were used. Animals were separated from their dams and dried immediately after birth. Their umbilical cords were disinfected, and they were weighed and randomly distributed into two groups (n=10) according to the treatment. Control goat kids group (CG) was fed with frozen-thawed goat colostrums, receiving a total of 150 ml per kg of birth weight by bottle-feeding at 2, 14 and 26 hours of life. The experimental group (Se-G) was fed with colostrum plus 3 ppm of sodium selenite following the same management than CG. From 36 hours of life all animals received milk replacer twice daily until the end of the experiment. Blood samples were obtained from the jugular vein every 24 hours from day 1 to day 5 of life. After centrifuged, blood plasma was frozen at -20ºC until subsequently analysis. Blood plasma IgG concentration was determined by using a commercial goat IgG ELISA kit . No significant effect of the sodium selenite addition on blood plasma IgG concentration was found. IgG concentration ranged from 14.34 to 9.57 and 11.80 to 7.11 in CG and Se-G respectively. IgG concentration peaked at day 2 of life in both groups (14.34 and 11.80 in CG and SE-G, respectively) decreasing after that until the end of the experiment (9.57 and 7.11 in CG and SE-G, respectively). Increase in hydration animal status and physiological degradation of colostral IgG and the fact that goat kids are unable to produce immunoglobulins by themselves may explain the decrease of IgG levels throughout the experiment. In conclusion, according to our preliminary results, the addition of 3 ppm of Sodium Selenite to goat colostrum did not improve the newborn goat kids IgG immune passive transfer; however more experiments should be necessary.