Mg. Sams et al., PHYSIOLOGICAL-RESPONSES OF NEONATAL WHITE-TAILED DEER REFLECTIVE OF MATERNAL DIETARY-PROTEIN INTAKE, Canadian journal of zoology, 73(10), 1995, pp. 1928-1936
Previously, we observed a strong correlation between immunity paramete
rs of neonatal white-tailed deer (Odocaileus virginianus) fawns and pr
obability of survival in an overpopulated herd. As a result, we monito
red age-related changes in neonatal fawn physiology. with an emphasis
on measures of passive immune transfer, to test the hypothesis that ma
ternal protein malnutrition adversely influences the vigor and immunoc
ompetence of newborn fawns. Body mass and physiological data were coll
ected from 55 neonatal fawns (1-28 days old) born to captive does on e
ither a high-protein (16%) or low-protein (6.5%) diet during the latte
r half of gestation through lactation (15 March - I September). The st
udy was conducted over two breeding seasons (1992 and 1993), with does
receiving the same diet the second year to assess diet x year interac
tions. We found little evidence of compromised immunocompetence of neo
natal fawns born to protein-malnourished does in either year. The abse
nce of any sign of suppressed in utero development suggested that the
nutritional deficiencies of the diet regime we used may not have been
chronic enough to mirror conditions that exist in the wild, Birth mass
, hematology, and serum chemistries of fawns suggested that low-protei
n diets caused reductions in maternal nutritional status by the second
year. The results of this study and those of preliminary field observ
ations suggested that compromised immunocompetence of neonatal fawns m
ay be manifested only during chronic malnutrition, when the protein re
serves of does become depleted or insufficient.