“Sepsis is a severe illness in which the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria”.1 The more accurate diagnostic consequence of sepsis is what is termed Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS). Regardless of the animal SIRS afflicts, the bacteria must have an entry point into the bloodstream and the animal must be vulnerable. In the newborn cria, the entry into the bloodstream is usually the umbilical cord. Invading bacteria also need a susceptible host.2 In the newborn cria, that immune vulnerability is produced when the cria gets inadequate amounts of colostrom, or poor quality colostrom. Camelids are born with a condition called, in medical terms, agammaglobulinemia. This simply means they are born with no passive immunity acquired during gestation. During the pregnancy, the gestating cria attains no temporary source of immunity to common environmental bacteria through the placenta. The entire source of the camelid immunoglobulin (IgG), or temporary immunity, is acquired from the colostrom the cria ingests in the hours after birth.3 The newborn camelid cria’s immunity to infectious agents is completely dependent on receiving adequate and early doses of colostrom.
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