Using saliva to determine passive immune transfer in goat ki

Abstract

Newborn goat kids rely on colostrum intake early after birth to achieve a correct passive immunization. Contrary to blood sampling, saliva can be collected by non-invasive methods. This study aimed to investigate the suitability of saliva immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration as a non-invasive method to estimate blood IgG concentration in goat kids during the first month of life. Seven goat kids were immediately separated from the dams at birth and bottle fed colostrum (10% of the birth BW) divided in two meals (i.e., at 2 h and 12 h relative to birth). Thereafter, animals were fed goat milk twice a day during the first month of life. Saliva and blood samples were collected on day 0 (i.e., before colostrum intake) and on day 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 30 relative to birth. Plasma and saliva IgG concentrations were determined using commercial ELISA kits. Pearson correlation coefficient was determined using Jamovi 2.3 software and the statistical significance was set as p ? 0.05. Results showed no correlations between plasma and saliva IgG concentrations, suggesting that saliva does not reflect circulating IgG concentrations during the first month of life. However, given the limited sample size, the present findings should be taken cautiously. This study represents a preliminary assessment of salivary immunoglobulins, which could potentially promote the development of non-invasive on-farm tools to assess acquired immunity in newborn goat kids.