title: Use of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to quantify immunoglobulin G concentrations in alpaca serum.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rapid, economical, and quantitative assays for measurement of camelid serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) are limited. In camelids, failure of transfer of maternal immunoglobulins has a reported prevalence of up to 20.5%. An accurate method for quantifying serum IgG concentrations is required.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop an infrared spectroscopy-based assay for measurement of alpaca serum IgG and compare its performance to the reference standard radial immunodiffusion (RID) assay.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and seventy-five privately owned, healthy alpacas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-two serum samples were collected as convenience samples during routine herd visits whereas 93 samples were recruited from a separate study. Serum IgG concentrations were determined by RID assays and midinfrared spectra were collected for each sample. Fifty samples were set aside as the test set and the remaining 125 training samples were employed to build a calibration model using partial least squares (PLS) regression with Monte Carlo cross validation to determine the optimum number of PLS factors. The predictive performance of the calibration model was evaluated by the test set.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlation coefficients for the IR-based assay were 0.93 and 0.87, respectively, for the entire data set and test set. Sensitivity in the diagnosis of failure of transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) ([IgG] <1,000 mg/dL) was 71.4% and specificity was 100% for the IR-based method (test set) as gauged relative to the RID reference method assay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicated that infrared spectroscopy, in combination with chemometrics, is an effective method for measurement of IgG in alpaca serum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jewett
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: McClure
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002161:Camelids, New World / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005779:Immunodiffusion / Q000662:veterinary; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G
keywords: Camelid; Failure of passive transfer; Radial immunodiffusion