Correction of the immunological status of the newborn calves with Interferon

The newborn calves have a number of physiological features that make them especially vulnerable to infectious diseases. Therefore, along with serums and vaccines that provide specific immunity, immunomodulators are used to correct the immunological status of animals after giving colostrum. The article presents the data on the study of indices of nonspecific resistance of calves after birth and their correction with interferon alfa-2b. It was found that in the group of calves that were introduced interferon, there was an increase in the number of lymphocytes (T lymphocytes - by 11.9% (P <0.05), B lymphocytes - by 28.2% (P <0.03), and also the phagocytic activity of leukocytes - by 13.5 % (P <0.00001), with a decrease in leukocytes by 12.6% (P <0.01), which was the evidence of the corrective effect of the preparation on the cell-mediated immunity. An increase in serum bactericidal activity (SBA) by 19.4 % (P <0.00001), serum lysozyme activity (SLA) - by 46.3% (P <0.00001), serum complementary activity (SCA) - by 35.3% (P <0.04), as well as immune globulins (γ- globulins - by 1.62 times (P <0.002), total immunoglobulins - by 21.8% (P <0.0005), immunoglobulins G - 23.0 % (P <0.04), which characterized the enhancement of nonspecific humoral immunity, was registered in the blood of calves of the experimental group compared to the control one. Thus, the application of the interferon contributed to the activation of nonspecific humoral and cell-mediated immunity of the newborn calves.