Clinical, hematological and serum biochemical reference values of working donkeys (Equus asinus) owned by transport operators in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

摘要

Astudywasconductedtoestablishreferencevaluesofclinical,hematologicalandserumbiochemicalparametersin85workingdonkeys.Clinicalparameterssuchastemperature,respiratoryandheartrateswereroutinelycollected.BloodsampleswerecollectedwithEDTA-coatedvaccutainertodetermineredandwhitebloodcellcounts,Hg,PCV,MCV,MCH,andMCHC.Bloodwasalsocollectedinplainvaccutainerandtheserumwasanalyzedtodeterminetotalprotein,urea,glucose,creatinine,serumenzymesandelectrolytes.Theeffectsofage,bodycondition,andworkloadonthedifferentphysiologicalparameterswereassessed.nbsp;Thestudyshowedthatclinical,hematologicalandserumbiochemicalparametersofworkingdonkeysweresignificantlyaffected(P0.05)byage.Bothclinicalandhematologicalparameterswerenotaffectedbythelevelofworkperformance.Conversely,allserumbiochemicalvalues,excepttotalprotein,weresignificantlyaffected(p0.05)byworkload,andK+concentrationbybodycondition.WhilemostofthecurrentfindingsarecloselysimilartopreviousreportsforEthiopiaandelsewhere,theeffectofworkloadandbodyconditiononserumbiochemicalparametersshowsthelackofproportionaladjustmentofmanagementforanimalsengagedinheavyworkandrequiresadueconsiderationduringtheuseoftheseserumvaluesasaclinicaldiagnosticaid.