Bedsonia abortion of sheep. 3. Immunological studies.

Abstract

The presence of complement fixing (CF) antibody, resulting from known or unknown infection, to the Bedsonia group antigen, ameliorates the clinical response and may prevent abortion in sheep following experimental inoculation of the epizootic bovine abortion (EBA) agent. The immunity conferred by the antibody is relative in that a sufficiently large challenge dose of the EBA agent may cause ewes to abort a second time. It is argued that some measure of control of EBA and enzootic abortion of ewes (EAE) can be achieved by the use of vaccines.