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Some Effects of the Ingestion of Colostrum by the Newborn Calf^*

Department of Animal Pathology of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, N. J.

Abstract

Characteristics of Colostrum

The colostrum of the dairy cow has a somewhat variable composition. The variations result from a number of factors, among which a first or later pregnancy and the time of drying-off after lactation has been established are of importance. The characterizing features of colostrum, as contrasted with milk, are the presence of colostral bodies and a high protein content. The increased protein consists largely of euglobulin, pseudoglobulin, and casein. The first two proteins are present to a very slight extent in milk. Colostrum also contains immune substances, sometimes in concentrations greater than in the blood of the cow.

Significance of Colostrum to the Newborn Calf

The newborn calf, before it has ingested colostrum, apparently does not have the protective immune bodies; its blood does not give the usual reactions for these bodies. Furthermore, the blood of such a calf does not contain the protein fractions designated as euglobulin and pseudoglobulin I.

^* For a general review of the literature relating to this problem see Traum J., The Cornell Veterinarian, 1923, xiii, 135.

For data on the immunity of calves see Smith, T., and Little. E. B., J. Exp. Med., 1922, xxxvi, 181; ibid, 1922, xxxvi, 453 ; ibid, 1923, xxxvii, 671.

For work on the variations of proteins in calves see Howe, P. E., J. Biol. Chem., 1921, xlix, 115; ibid, 1922, lii, 51; ibid, 1922, liii, 479; J. Exp. Med., 1924, in press; and Orcutt, M. L., and Howe, P. E., ibid, 1922, xxxvi, 291.