The specific humoral local immune response of the pigs was determined
after a controlled TGEV challenge by measuring the specific secretory
(s)IgA level in the small intestine of the animals. The data from the first
replicate were excluded from the statistical analysis due to technical reasons.
The results are shown in Figure 2. Similarly to the other tested immune
parameters the level of the TGEV specific (s)IgA was again the highest in
the 1 g/kg MOS supplemented pigs, but the immunized groups only tended
to differ from each other (P=0.07). In our study the (s)IgA concentration in
the small intestine was measured to be the highest for the 1 g/kg MOS group
and the lowest for the antibiotic treatment