Assessment of immune fitness is valuable in many aspects of livestock management and research. Determining immune consequences of selection for increased disease resistance or inhabiting various environments or climates can lead to different management decisions. The ability to measure immune responses due to different diets, pregnancy status, or aging will increase insight about how these factors contribute to overall immune health.

The main objective of these experiments was to adapt a methodology used in cattle and pigs to measure both the humoral and cell-mediated immune response in sheep and goats. The route of administration of two antigens, Candida albicans and hen egg white lysozyme, were compared in sheep to determine differences in antibody or cell-mediated immune response. Subcutaneous injection produced a larger (P < 0.001) cell-mediated response compared to intramuscular injection. Inoculation in the axillary space produced a larger (P = 0.0031) antibody response compared to neck region. Finally, methodology was confirmed in goats. Complete blood cell counts were compared and lymphocytes were highest in low cell-mediated responders while eosinophils were highest in average antibody-mediated responders. This work provides a means to measure immune fitness in sheep and goats allowing for future experiments examining environmental or genetic effects on the immune response.

免疫适应性评估在牲畜管理和研究的许多方面都很有价值。确定为增加抗病性或居住在各种环境或气候中而进行选择的免疫后果可能导致做出不同的管理决策。测量因饮食，妊娠状况或衰老而异的免疫反应的能力将使人们更加了解这些因素如何促进整体免疫健康。

这些实验的主要目的是使牛和猪中使用的方法适应绵羊和山羊的体液免疫和细胞介导的免疫反应。两种抗原白色念珠菌的给药途径比较了绵羊中的蛋清和鸡蛋白溶菌酶，以确定抗体或细胞介导的免疫反应的差异。与肌肉内注射相比，皮下注射产生更大（P <0.001）的细胞介导反应。与颈部区域相比，在腋窝空间中接种产生更大的抗体应答（P = 0.0031）。最后，在山羊身上证实了方法学。比较全血细胞计数，淋巴细胞在低细胞介导的应答者中最高，而嗜酸性粒细胞在平均抗体介导的应答者中最高。这项工作提供了一种方法来测量绵羊和山羊的免疫适应性，从而允许将来进行实验来检验环境或遗传因素对免疫反应的影响。