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Inheritance of Active and Acquired Immunity Traits in Sheep^1,2,

Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331-6802 and Animal Research Centre, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6

Abstract

Six hundred sixteen ewes of six strains were inoculated twice with ovalbumin in Freunds' incomplete adjuvant. To quantify the humoral immune response to the foreign antigen, blood samples were collected from all ewes 1 wk post-second injection. Blood samples were also collected between 4 and 40 h of age from their 709 lambs, to examine genetic differences in ability of lambs to acquire maternal anti-ovalbumin antibodies. Titers of anti-ovalbumin antibodies were determined using kinetic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques. Strain did not affect ewe immune response, but sire within strain was highly significant. In pregnant ewes, anti-ovalbumin antibody titers in 12- and 30-mo-old ewes were higher than those in 21-mo-old ewes. Number of lambs in utero did not significantly affect ewe immune response. Heritabilities of anti-ovalbumin titer from a paternal half-sib analysis were .27 ± .17 for all ewes and .57 ± .25 for only the pregnant ewes. The effect of strain of lamb on lamb anti-ovalbumin titer approached significance, and sire within strain was highly significant. Lamb anti-ovalbumin antibody concentration increased as time from birth to blood sampling increased to 18 h but declined thereafter. The size of the litter in which a lamb was born had a highly significant effect on the lamb's acquired immunity, with titer decreasing as litter size increased. The heritability estimate for lamb anti-ovalbumin antibody concentration from a paternal half-sib analysis was .38 ± .11; it was .28 ± .15 from the sire variance component of a full-sib analysis. When lamb titer was considered a maternal trait (lambs nested within their maternal grandsires within strains), the maternal grandsire variance component was negative. The average anti-ovalbumin antibody concentration of lambs that died between blood sample collection and 120 d of age was less than the average antibody concentration of lambs that survived (P<.01).

¹ Tech. paper no. 7912, Oregon State Exp. Sta. and contribution no. 1403 of the Animal Research Centre.

² Financial support from USDA, ARS, IRM Cooperative Agreement 58-9AHZ-3-713 is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish to thank Animal Research Centre personnel Drs. A. A. Grunder and J. S. Gavora for discussions during the design of the experiment and Mr. P. Griffin, Miss S. P. Leffler and Mr. J. C. Love for technical assistance.

³ Dept. of Anim. Sci., Oregon State Univ.

⁴ Dept. of Microbiol., Oregon State Univ.

⁵ Animal Research Centre, Agriculture Canada.