The Occurrence of Natural Antibodies to Rumen Bacteria

Abstract

The sera of 1 1 ruminants and one horse contained relatively high titres of agglutinating antibodies against strains of anaerobic bacteria isolated from the bovine rumen. They were not detected in the sera of non-ruminants, i.e. pig, rabbit, guinea pig, rat and man. A close relationship existed between motility of rumen organisms and their ability to evoke detectable antibodies, although antibodies to both flagellar and somatic antigens were produced. The antibodies to the rumen organisms were highly specific and of the IgM type. They occurred in bovine colostrum at the same level as in the blood serum, and were transferred to the calf via the colostrum. After I month they had disappeared from the calf serum but between 5 and 8 months later antibodies of a similar activity were detected. In addition, antibodies to the non-motile BiJidobacterium biJdus were found in the sera of the young calf.

Antimicrobial factors in bovine colostrum

“…The former assumption is supported by numerous observations on the occurrence of natural, agglutinating, bactericidal or neutralizing antibodies in bovine colostrum or blood against various bacteria, e.g. Escherichia coli (Ingram and Malcomsen 1970, Porter 1972, Reiter and Brock 1975, Seto et al 1976), against viruses (Woode et al 1975), and against rumen microbes (Sharpe et al 1969). The latter assumption is supported by the observation of Sharpe and Reiter (1972) that rumen microbes have cross-reacting antigens to salmonellae.…”

Glycerol Teichoic Acid as an Antigenic Determinant in a Gram-negative Bacterium Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens

“…Butyrivibrios were cultured anaerobically using the Hungate ( 1950) technique and the medium MIO described by Sharpe, Latham & Reiter (1969). Other bacteria were cultured in appropriate conventional media.…”

Structural and genetic diversity in antibody repertoires from diverse species

“…The 'knob' regions of ultralong CDR H3 cow antibodies, which are even smaller than a nanobody, might be able to similarly 'reach' into such concave epitopes. Of note, both camelids and cows are ruminants which have substantial antigen load in their rumen stomach compartment that is made up of high titers of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms [125][126][127][128]. Whether these microorganisms provided evolutionary pressure to develop novel antibody repertoires in cows and camels will require significant further study.…”