Non-specific agglutination of Corynebacterium ovis by precolostral and young lamb sera.

An agglutination reaction, relatively coarse compared to that obtained with immune sera, was observed when Corynebacterium ovis cells were incubated with lamb sera collected before and after ingesting colostrum. The reaction did not appear to involve immunoglobulin since it was not affected by treatment of precolostral lamb serum with rivanol, mercaptoethanol or rabbit antisheep serum. IgM was detected in only three of 10 precolostral samples with agglutinating activity and immunofluorescence studies showed that it was not specific for C ovis. In view of the non-specific clumping factor, tests which detect antitoxin would be preferable for immune surveys in young lambs.