Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 151 (2013) 303–314 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology j ourna l ho me pag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetimm Research paper Reproduction of bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) by feeding pooled colostrum reveals variable alloantibody damage to different haematopoietic lineages Charlotte R. Bell a,b,∗ , Mara S. Rocchi b , Mark P. Dagleish b , Eleonora Melzi b , Keith T. Ballingall b , Maira Connelly b , Morag G. Kerr c , Sandra F.E. Scholes d , Kim Willoughby b a The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK b Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK c Scottish Agricultural College Consultancy: Veterinary Services, Allan Watt Building, Bush Estate, Penicuik, EH26 0QE, Scotland, UK d Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency Lasswade, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 13 August 2012 Received in revised form 27 November 2012 Accepted 4 December 2012 Keywords: Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) Haematopoietic Alloantibody Colostrum a b s t r a c t Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) is a recently described haemorrhagic disease of calves characterised by thrombocytopenia, leucopenia and bone marrow depletion. Feeding colostrum from cows that have previously produced a BNP affected calf has been shown to induce the disease in some calves, leading to the hypothesis that alloantibodies in colostrum from dams of affected calves mediate destruction of blood and bone marrow cells in the recipient calves. The aims of the current experimental study were first to confirm the role of colostrum-derived antibody in mediating the disease and second to investigate the haematopoietic cell lineages and maturation stages depleted by the causative antibodies. Clinical, haematological and pathological changes were examined in 5 calves given a stan- dardised pool of colostrum from known BNP dams, and 5 control calves given an equivalent pool of colostrum from non-BNP dams. All calves fed challenge colostrum showed progres- sive depletion of bone marrow haematopoietic cells and haematological changes consistent with the development of BNP. Administration of a standardised dose of the same colostrum pool to each calf resulted in a consistent response within the groups, allowing detailed inter- pretation of the cellular changes not previously described. Analyses of blood and serial bone marrow changes revealed evidence of differential effects on different blood cell lineages. Peripheral blood cell depletion was confined to leucocytes and platelets, while bone marrow damage occurred to the primitive precursors and lineage committed cells of the thrombo- cyte, lymphocyte and monocyte lineages, but only to the more primitive precursors in the neutrophil, erythrocyte and eosinophil lineages. Such differences between lineages may reflect cell type-dependent differences in levels of expression or conformational nature of the target antigens. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author. Current address: The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK. Tel.: +44 0 131 651 9246; fax: +44 0 131 651 9105. E-mail address: lottie.bell@ed.ac.uk (C.R. Bell). 1. Introduction Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP) is a recently described disease of calves that has been reported across Europe since 2007 (Friedrich et al., 2009) and more recently in New Zealand (Anon, 2011). The clinical findings, pathol- ogy and histopathology of the disease are now well defined 0165-2427/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2012.12.002