Feeding cows' colostrum to newborn lambs

Thrombocytopenia in lambs fed with bovine colostrum

Artificially reared lambs, fed with bovine colostrum, died within 48 hours after birth, showing thrombocytopenia and extensive haemorrhages on autopsy. The mechanism behind was not fully understood, but experimental immunization of young cattle against sheep red blood cells, carried out five years earlier on the same farm, may have played a role.