Obtention of tetanus antitoxin hyperimmune sera in equines

Tetanus is an illness caused by the neurotoxin produced by the Clostridium tetani and its control is a strategy of the vaccination programs developed by the Panamerican Health Organization. For the production of tetanus toxoid are used international standards of antitoxins gotten in equines, however, these antisera are not available for their routine use in Cuba. The purpose of this study was to obtain a potent antitoxin against tetanus toxin. Four groups of mares were immunized. For the immunization, the different amounts of immunogen were emulsified in Immune- stimulating oil emulsion and injected according to the several multisite immunization protocols in low volumes. The second immunizations were carried out in Immune- stimulating oil emulsion. The antibody response was evaluated by Ramón flocculation assay. The antitoxin antibody titers varied significantly from an immunization protocol to another according to the studied parameters. Nevertheless, the same antitoxin titers increased quickly and reached a plateau around the 6 weeks for three groups of animals. The antibody titers were significantly higher in the fourth group of animals, reaching their activity to 2000 LfeqU/mL. We could conclude that the antitoxin antibody concentration increases with the time and the repetition of the immunogenic stimulus, and it is demonstrated that immunization protocols more lingering produce better outputs of antitoxins. This potent antitetanus toxin should be useful as internal reference material in the tetanus toxiod antigen.