Tools and reagents for caprine immunology

The portfolio of reagents for immunology research in veterinary species is limited compared to those available for humans and model biomedical species such as mice. For example, we still lack the reagents to fully ascertain if the immunological paradigms relating to the development, function and inter-relationships between the major T helper cell subsets (Th1, Th2, Th17) apply in ruminants, including goats. Such reagents are essential for rational and strategic approaches to vaccine design based on the identification of correlates of protection. Although a number of human immunological reagents such as monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and cytokines have been shown to cross-react with the farmed ruminant species (cattle, sheep and goats), a greater degree of cross-reactivity is found for reagents specifically developed against ruminant species. Thus, for goats, the most likely sources of cross-reactive reagents are those made against cattle and sheep. Nevertheless, although high inter-species homologies are evident at the gene level in ruminants, cross-reactivity of mAb, cytokines and molecular probes cannot be guaranteed and reagents may have to be developed specifically. Here we review the current availability of immunological reagents for caprine immunology and how those reagents can be used to understand T cell biology.