Effect of the feeding programme on the immune response of newborn buffalo calves

ABSTRACT

The present investigation was preformed on 12 buffalo calves from birth up to 8 months of age. The impact of natural suckling and artificial rearing of using limited amount of milk for such calves on their growth rate, total serum protein and serum electrophoretic patterns were conducted from birth up to 2 months. After 6 months of age both control and experimental calves, the antibody response as well as skin test were preformed. The average values of daily body weight gain of the control [1.095] and the expermintal [1.428] calves were generally within normal limits. There was significant difference in total serum protein and electrophoretic patterns between the control and experimental calves. The antibody response revealed that there was a higher significant difference in the antibody titres of control group after 21 days following the priming dose than the experimental calves, while the changes in skin fold thickness were observed after intradermal skin test with phytohaemagglutinin but the difference lacked significance: