title: Evaluation of the Brix refractometer as an on-farm tool for the detection of passive transfer of immunity in dairy calves.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the accuracy of both the optical and digital Brix refractometers compared with radial immunodiffusion (RID) for determining the immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations in dairy calf serum.
  
  
  METHODS
  The experiment design was a cross-sectional survey of four dairy farms. Serum was sampled from 12 calves from each farm at approximately 48 hours of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum IgG concentrations of 48 calves were measured using RID and both types of Brix refractometer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  IgG concentrations measured by Brix refractometer scores correlated with RID results: 0.74 and 0.71 for the digital and optical devices, respectively. The minimum Brix score that identified calf serum with success of passive immunity (>1000 mg/dL RID IgG) with 100% accuracy was 10% for both devices. The optical and digital devices performed similarly at identifying IgG concentrations in calf serum, with a concordance of 87%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Brix refractometer score ≥10% can be used to classify calves with successful transfer of passive immunity and the devices are sufficiently accurate for use as a simple, inexpensive on-farm tool for the monitoring of neonatal dairy calf immunity levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Primary Industries, 1301 Hazeldean Road, Ellinbank, Victoria, 3821, Australia. josie.thornhill@depi.vic.gov.au.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Thornhill
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Petzel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000276:immunology*; D002417:Cattle / Q000276:immunology*; D003126:Colostrum / Q000276:immunology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003612:Dairying; D007112:Immunity, Maternally-Acquired; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D016014:Linear Models; D009517:New South Wales; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G
keywords: Brix refractometer; dairy calves; on-farm tools; passive immunity transfer; serum immunoglobulins