Association of bovine major histocompatibility complex class I (BoLA-A) alleles with immune response to Brucella abortus strain 19 in calves

•Association of bovine MHC class I (BoLA-A) exons 2–3 and 4–5 allelic variants with immune response to B. abortus S19 is reported in the present study.•The association analysis of various BoLA-A alleles with the immune response revealed that calves with certain defined genotypes induced significantly higher cell-mediated immune responses in terms of lymphocyte proliferation, lymphocyte mediated cytotoxicity and nitrite production.•It is assumed that allelic variants of BoLA-A (exons 2–3 and 4–5) were associated with the differential immune response of calves to B. abortus S19 vaccination.