Effects Of Transportation And Immunization On The Levels Of Cytokines In Beef Cattle

In the production process, long-distance transportation and vaccination can often cause stress response in beef cattle. It is generally believed that a strong stress response can weaken the immune function, and seriously affects the performance of beef cattle production.In the first part of this study, we chose8healthy adult cattle to have a15hours road transportation. Then utilized the ELISA method to detect the changes of cytokines, and obtain the dynamic variation of the levels of cytokines under the transportation stress. The results showed that:After the transportation for1hour, the levels of IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10and TNF-αstarted to decrease. After the transportation for5hours, the levels of IL-6increased moderately and other cytokines we detected were sostenuto decreased. After the transportation for5hours, the level of IL-6increased moderately and other cytokines we detected were sostenuto decreased. Analyzed all the changes between0hour and after the transportation for10hours, there were no significant differences compared with0hour. After the transportation for15hours, the concentrations of all the cytokines were lower than0hour, and the levels of IL-2, IL-4and IL-6were lowest in the transportation process, the level of IL-2was very significantly decreased compared with0hour (P<0.01), the levels of IL-6and IL-10were significantly decreased compared with0hour (P<0.05). Then the levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6and TNF-α started to recuperate, and recuperated to normal condition after the transportation for2days. The level of IL-6is positively correlated with IL-4and IL-10(r=0.801, r=0.823). Finally,we concluded that the levels of cytokines in beef cattle were significantly inhibited after the transportation for15hours, then the immune function of stressed cattle started to recuperate, recuperated to normal condition after the transportation for2days.In the second part of this study, we chose5Simmental cattle to vaccinate the foot-and-mouth disease type O inactivated vaccine, then utilizing the ELISA method and flow cytometry to analysis the variations of Immune indices before and after vaccination, thus to explore the position of stress on the current vaccine failure occurred.The results showed that:After the vaccination, the concentrations of FMD antibody rose constantly, and got to maximum after the vaccination for28days. The proportion of CD4+T cells are significantly increased after immunization, but the proportion of CD8+T cells decrease slightly. After the vaccination for7days, the levels of IL-1β, IL-2and IL-4were significantly decreased compared with0day (P<0.05). After vaccination for14days, the levels of IL-6and TNF-a were significantly increased compared with0day (P<0.05). After the vaccination for21days, the levels of IL-1β and IL-4were significantly decreased compared0day (P<0.05). After the vaccination for28days, the level of IL-1β was significantly decreased compared with0day (P<0.05). Finally, we concluded that the immunization FMD vaccine was effective. The levels of cytokines in beef cattle were significantly inhibited by immunization stress after the vaccination for7days.