Preliminary comparison of different immune and production components in local and imported Saanen goats reared under a sub-tropical environment

• Published in: Tropical animal health and production Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 87 - 93
• Main Authors: Barbour, Elie K., Itani, Houssam H., Sleiman, Fawwak T., Saade, Maya F., Harakeh, Steve, Nour, Afif M. Abdel, Shaib, Houssam A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2012; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological; Age Distribution; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Antigens - analysis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Blood Chemical Analysis - veterinary; CD8 antigen; Cell Count - veterinary; Chickens; Complement fixation; Complement Fixation Tests - veterinary; Erythrocytes; Erythrocytes - chemistry; Female; Goats - blood; Goats - genetics; Goats - immunology; Goats - physiology; Hemagglutination Tests - veterinary; Immune response; Lactation; Leukocytes; Life Sciences; Male; Middle East; Milk; Milk - cytology; Milk - immunology; Milk - metabolism; Monocytes; Original Research; Random Allocation; Seroconversion; Sex Distribution; Tropical Climate; Tropical environments; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Zoology; Middle East; MED, Eastern Mediterranean; Local versus imported Saanen; Immune responses; Goats; Immune cells; Performance; Comparison
• ISSN: 0049-4747; 1573-7438
• DOI: 10.1007/s11250-011-9892-3

Three objectives were included in this research work. The first objective compared different immune components in healthy mature males, mature females, and female kids of local and imported Saanen goats, reared under a sub-tropical environment. The significantly differing immune components were the blood monocyte percent, blood CD8 count, and the total white blood cell count. The second objective compared the performance of Saanen versus local does. The means of the milk yield and prolificacy of the imported Saanen does were significantly higher than those of the local does ( p  < 0.05). The third objective compared the immune responses (hemagglutination-HA titers) and complement fixation (CF) titers in mature does of the two breeds to chicken red blood cells (c-RBC). The HA titers showed a significant seroconversion only in imported Saanen ( p  < 0.05) but not in local does; however, the CF titers increased significantly at 4 weeks following priming with c-RBC in local ( p  < 0.05) but not in the imported Saanen does. The impact of the differences in blood immune components and responses to antigens in the compared goats on protection potential against prevalent diseases in the sub-tropical zone of the eastern Mediterranean countries is discussed.