Utilisation of non-species specific antibodies to detect goat leukocyte populations by flow cytometry

As standard practice, manual and automatic techniques are used to identify granulocytes and monocytes in goat species, with good results for both techniques. However, there are other techniques such as Flow cytometry that can be used for this purpose. To achieve this, use of species-specific antibodies is mandatory to identify each white blood cell population. However, other species-specific antibodies can be used in other species, provided that the antibodies reactivity is validated. Sixty-two peripheral blood samples from healthy goats were collected and processed with an Attune NxT Cytometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific) to test their reactivity to the following antibodies: CD11b (Clone:M1/70) conjugated PeCy5, CD5 (Clone: YKIX322.3) conjugated FITC, cocktail CD4/CD8 (YKIX302.9/ YCATE55.9) conjugated FITC/PE. All analyses were conducted at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Agricultural University of Tirana within 24 hours from peripheral blood collection. Results showed a mild satisfactory reactivity only to CD11b and only for neutrophils. However, the relatively low number of cases can be considered a limitation of this study, therefore future investigations should include a larger number of peripheral blood samples from healthy goats.