The production of anti-human globulin serum (Coombs reagent) in goats.

The rabbit is customarily used for the preparation of anti-human globulin serum, but there are several objections to the choice of this animal. These are: (1) The volume of serum obtained is small. To maintain supplies it is necessary either to have several animals producing the reagent, or to hyperimmunize and bleed the rabbits used too frequently, which in turn results in a less specific reagent. (2) The rabbit is prone to myxomatosis. This note reports the preparation of the reagent in the goat. The procedure has the following advantages over preparation in rabbits: (1) It yields larger volumes of serum. (2) The goat is not prone to infection with myxomatosis. (3) The immunizing and bleeding operations are simpler and quicker. (4) For the laboratory using or distributing large quantities of the reagent feeding and housing a goat is less costly than keeping 20 or 30 rabbits. Method