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CASE REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Comparative Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1568142
Case Report: The effect of asplenia on the response to influenza vaccination and passive transfer of immunity in an adult female pig
Provisionally accepted- 1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, United States
- 2 Center for Global Health and Diseases, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Asplenia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in humans. However, there are only very rare examples of this condition reported in domesticated species. Here, we present a case of asplenia, diagnosed at necropsy, in a crossbred adult female pig from an influenza vaccine study. The humoral antibody response, including immune response to an influenza A virus vaccine, was characterized and compared to a parity matched pig from the same study. The antibody profiles, lower total IgM with similar levels of IgG, were remarkably similar to those described in human patients with asplenia. However, in response to vaccination, the asplenic pig showed a robust hemagglutininspecific IgM response with lower levels of IgG and IgA. These results were mirrored in the passively transferred antibody profiles of the asplenic dam's piglets. This constitutes the first case of congenital asplenia described in the pig.
Keywords: Asplenia, pig, IgM, antibody responses, Influenza Virus
Received: 28 Jan 2025; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rahe, Byrne, Meritet, Gruber, Langel and Crisci. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Elisa Crisci, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, United States
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