Maternal antibodies against tetanus toxoid do not inhibit potency of antibody responses to autologous antigen in newborn rhesus monkeys.

Our data indicate that newborn macaques have competent immune systems that are capable of generating their own primary antibody responses to vaccination, at least to tetanus antigens. Maternal antibodies thus do not significantly impair antibody response to the vaccination, even when received on the day of birth in infant rhesus macaques.