Antibacterial antibodies in swine colostrum

Antibacterial antibody activities were examined in 138 samples of swine colostrum by O-agglutinin test with serotypes of Escherichia coli (O-6, 0-45, 0-81, 0-83, 0-115, 0-138, O-139, and O-126), Salmonella typhimurium, and Salmonella cholerae suis. The mean agglutinin titer of E coli O-83 was the highest; E coli O-115 was next highest. The mean agglutinin titer of S cholerae suis was lowest; S typhimurium was next to lowest. Correlation coefficients among these O-agglutinin titers were between 0.109 and 0.693. Correlations of S typhimurium were the poorest; those of E coli O83, E coli O-138, and S cholerae suis were also poor. By principal component analysis, it was possible to classify ten kinds of O-agglutinins into four groups. The cumulative proportion of the first four principal components accounted for 77.97% of the total variance. Cumulative coefficients of factor loadings were from 65.25% to 99.50% of these O-agglutinins.