AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 236, Issue 3 184-R187, Copyright © 1979 by American Physiological Society
Development of fever in the newborn lamb
N. W. Kasting, W. L. Veale and K. E. Cooper
Newborn lambs do not become febrile in response to intravenous (iv)
bacterial endotoxin in moderate doses. Newborn lambs were tested to see if
they could become febrile to large doses of endotoxin or to endogenous
pyrogen. At 5 h of age lambs do not become febrile to relatively large
doses of endotoxin or to endogenous pyrogen, but rather become hypothermic.
At 32 h and all subsequent times, fevers could be elicited. Onset time of
fevers in lambs was short initially and gradually lengthened over 9 days,
at which time it was similar to the onset time of the adult fever. With
respect to the febrile response, newborn lambs showed varying degrees of
tolerance after 10 days of daily injections of endotoxin, as compared to
the ewe which becomes tolerant in 2 or 3 days.
