Antibody and Resistance to Infection with Yersinia pestis in the Progeny of Immunized Rats

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The presence of HA antibody to the Fraction I antigen of Yersinia pestis was examined in sera of neonatal, suckling, and newly weaned Rattus norvegicus. Newborn rats from immunized dams possessed antibody at birth, before suckling. Antibody declined or disappeared in suckling rats nursed by unimmunized dams, while antibody appeared in sera of rats born of unimmunized dams and fostered by immunized dams. Antibody also appeared in suckling young of dams inoculated with antiserum to Y. pestis prepared in rabbits. Offspring of immunized dams usually had titers of HA antibody at weaning equal to 25%–50% of the dams' titers. Most one-week-old rats and many six-week-old rats that had been nursed by immunized dams survived inoculation with about 1,000 virulent plague bacilli, and all young rats that possessed HA antibody titers of ⩾ 64 at the time of inoculation survived. The significance of passively acquired antibody and protection in the epidemiology and the ecology of plague was considered.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: