NEONATAL IMMUNITY AND IMMUNIZATION IN EARLY AGE - LESSONS FROM VETERINARY-MEDICINE

The objective of this paper is to review adaptive immunity of young an imals using examples from my own experience and from the literature. T rials carried out by us with a modified live and inactivated canine pa rvovirus vaccine in newborn puppies provide evidence of the immune cap acity of these puppies. With regard to transfer of immunity from mothe r to offspring, there is a role for transplacental and colostral immun ity Examples of passive protection of young animals against different infections include passive protection of kittens against the feline im munodeficiency virus. However, passive immunity though very useful at an early age, varies in duration and makes implementation of standard vaccination schedules difficult. Other experiments demonstrate that, u nder certain conditions, it is possible to overcome residual maternall y- derived antibodies and to induce post-vaccinal immunity. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reverved.