The aim of the study was to evaluate quick and easy semiquantitative tests for the detection of serum immunoglobulins that are commonly used for to trace the foals with the failure of passive immunity transfer.We compared the four most employed methods -zinc sulphate turbidity tests using photometric or visual reading, glutaraldehyde test and refractometric determination of total protein concentration in serum.Radial immunodiffusion test was used as a reference method.Thirty-eight blood serum samples from foals were used for quantitative estimation of immunoglobulins.The tested methods were correlated with reference method and their availability for tracing of cases of unsuccessful passive transfer immunogobulins was evaluated.The results obtained so far have not allowed us to recommend without reservation any of the compared methods as a reliable test for the determination of blood serum Ig concentrations in newborn foals.On the other hand, the practical usefulness of two of the tested methods (visual reading of turbidity, refractometry) for rapid field identification of hypogammaglobulinaemic foals was confirmed.Of the two, we prefer the refractometric method (sensitivity: 94.11; specificity: 83.30 and predictive value: 88) for common use because it is quicker and easier than other methods.This study pointed out the critical points of the mentioned problem, which have to be studied further.
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Sedlinská et al. (2005) studied this question.