Regarding the number of blood leukocyte subsets, a
significant difference between the CoF and CoD groups
was observed only in the number of blood B cells
(Table 2). It is less likely that leukocytes transferred from
colostrum directly caused significant differences in the
number of blood B cells between the CoF and CoD
groups at 28 days of age. This is because the number of
colostral leukocytes transferred to the bloodstream of
newborn piglets within 24 h of life is very small, a maximum
of 160 cells per 1 mL of blood according to
previous studies (Williams 1993; Pomorska-Mól &
Markowska-Daniel 2011).On the other hand, the difference
in the mean number of blood B cells between the
CoF and CoD groupswas about 40 000 cells/mL, a much
larger number of cells than that can be transferred as colostral
cells. Furthermore, the number of whole leukocytes
per 1 mL of blood expands about 1.5-fold
between 21 and 28 days of age (Pomorska-Mól &
Markowska-Daniel 2011), suggesting that piglets generate
and expand their own B cells in the weaning period.
Thus, in this case, it is likely that colostrum ingestion
during the first 24 h increased the number of B cells produced
by the piglets.