Effect of oral antigen and antibody exposure at birth on subsequent immune status. A study in neonatal pigs.

Overall, our data support the hypothesis that contrary to previous work in rodents, very early exposure of neonatal pigs to a single small dose of antigen can reduce subsequent immune responses. This may have implications for human health. However, although these data point to a reducing/regulatory effect of low doses of antigen in very young animals, they cannot be extrapolated directly to allergy.