Capralogics has been producing polyclonal antibodies in rabbits, goats, and sheep since 1994.  Animals are our foundation.  Top priority is placed on ethical and humane treatment of animals used for polyclonal antibody production.  Our facility complies with the high standards of the Animal Welfare Act in terms of housing, feeding, cleanliness, and ventilation.  An attentive and knowledgeable staff provides excellent care for our animals.  The process of polyclonal antibody production involves detailed protocols that are reviewed and approved by our Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).  The IACUC requires justification of all aspects of the polyclonal antibody proposal.  The well-being of our animals results in high quality polyclonal antibodies.

Healthy animals make grams of antibody proteins daily in response to the environment as a defense against infectious organisms and illness.  Responsible animal husbandry practices use routine vaccinations that result immunity and antibody production to prevent disease.  Antibodies circulate in the body and bind to invading organisms and prevent illness or lessen the severity of disease.

An antibody is a protein that has a binding site recognizing a specific portion of a substance, which is also know as an antigen.  As a general rule, antibodies discriminate between self and non-self and bind only to foreign substances or antigens.  Animals have millions of antibodies with unique binding recognition sites on antigens.  When an animal receives rabies vaccine, the killed virus triggers the production of many different antibodies recognizing various viral structural components.  Polyclonal antibodies, also known as antisera, represent a population of antibodies binding to different sites of a single antigen.  A healthy immune system is highly sensitive and responsive.  An immunization schedule of 3 doses of 0.5 milligram of antigen for a 50 kilogram goat, representing a weight ratio of 100 million, results in the production of a highly specific polyclonal antiserum.  Antibodies are useful in laboratory diagnostic tests at very low concentrations, often in the nanogram to microgram range.  One pint of blood collected from an immunized goat has an average of 200 milligrams of specific antibody and can be sufficient for a million hospital diagnostic tests.