Return to search

Serological response to early vaccination against Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina in dairy calves

Calves infected with Babesia bovis or Babesia bigemina between 3 and 9 months of age can develop immunity without showing overt clinical signs. This transient immunity is not dependent on maternal immunity. After 9 months of age, they are fully susceptible to challenge. Dairy calves between 2 and 3 months of age were vaccinated with B. bigemina and B. bovis live frozen vaccines (Onderstepoort Biological Products®). Two months after vaccination, 90% of calves were serologically positive on IFA test to B. bigemina, and 70% were serologically positive to B. bovis. At this age, only 17% of the control group had seroconverted to B. bigemina and none of the calves had seroconverted to B. bovis. All experimental calves maintained positive serological status to both B. bovis</i. and B. bigemina for at least 5 months after vaccination. It is sound practice to vaccinate dairy calves against babesiosis at 2–3 months of age. Endemic stability is achieved before the period of natural resistance wanes. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/29672
Date21 November 2012
CreatorsDavis, Anthony John
ContributorsPenzhorn, Barend Louis, Crafford, Jan Ernst, Latif, Abdalla A., anthonydavis@telkomsa.net
PublisherUniversity of Pretoria
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria

Page generated in 0.0017 seconds