RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GOAT MHC (GLA) AND ANTIBODY-RESPONSE TO DIPHTHERIA TOXOID, HUMAN SERUM-ALBUMIN AND TETANUS TOXOID, USING A TWIN MODEL

Norwegian dairy goats were tested for possible associations between th e goat lymphocyte antigen system (GLA) and antibody response to the an tigens diphtheria toxoid, human-serum albumin and tetanus toxoid. The serum titres to these antigens following immunization, and their GLA-s pecificities, were determined in 96 twin pairs. The antibody response and GLA specificity were compared between twins: twins sharing one or more GLA specificities showed a more similar primary-antibody response to diphtheria toxoid than twins with no common specificity. The main point in comparing twins is that the MHC specificity then serves as a marker for the complete haplotype, including MHC class-II genes. Howev er, a gene substitution model that only tests the effect of the observ ed class-I alleles revealed that animals with GLA specificity Eu2 had a significantly higher anti-diphtheria response than Eu2-negative anim als.