Maternal immunoglobulin in the serum of newborn lambs and its relation with neonatal mortality.

Abstract

The study was conducted on 153 neonatal lambs of one of the highland breeds of sheep, locally called "Menz sheep" in North-Eastern part of Ethiopia, with the aim of assessing the relationship of total serum immunoglobulin level and neonatal lamb mortality in the first one month of life. The overall mortality in neonates was 8.5%. Surviving lambs (2.430.35 kg) were significantly heavier than those that died during the neonatal period (2.210.55 kg). Males (2.450.31 kg) were significantly heavier than females (2.370.43 kg). The lambs that survived the neonatal period had a significantly higher level of immunoglobulin (31.7112.88 Zinc Sulphate Turbidity units) than those that died (12.775.25 Zinc Sulphate Turbidity units). Neonatal lambs with total serum immunoglobulin levels below 12 Zinc Sulphate Turbidity units may be considered as an indication of failure of passive transfer of colostrum immunoglobulins and consequently increased the susceptibility of lambs to diseases and subsequent deaths. The neonatal lambs with lower average birth weight (2.21 kg) and lower average total serum immunoglobulin level (12.77 Zinc Sulphate Turbidity units) had found dead before the first 30 days of their age. Most deaths of lambs occur in the first few days of birth that are typically associated with lower birth weight which also led to weakness, taking longer time to stand up and reduced chance of survival than lambs of heavier weight. Hence, several works have to be done to further improving the birth weight of newborn lambs as well as the nutritional status of the dam so that lambs may receive sufficient and good quality amount of colostrum from the first few hours of birth.