What is the meaning of normal? -A commentary on the normal ranges of clinical pathological diagnostic parameters for sheep

摘要

Diagnostic mis-interpretations may occur when the state of health of an ani-mal is determined when only the clini-cal standard of a physiological para-meter is used. It is important to remem-ber that such standards are prone to the statistical variation, and, from Published literature, in some cases this is quite large. The objective of the present study was to provide some cla-rification of this problem using apros-pective approach. Physiological func-tions of domestic animals were found to be theresult of continuous rhythmic variations, suggesting that homeody-namic is a better term than homeosta-sis. Modifications of this dynamic process may appear before the onset of clinical signs of a systemic disturbance, indicating that the homeodynamic is a very sensitive measurement. Validation of the homeodynamic, using non-linear dynamic methodology, provides a means of determining the health status of an animal using only one variable.