Study of serum proteins in Iberian roe deer (Capreolus capreolus): Total proteins, protein electrophoresis and acute phase proteins

• Autor(a) principal: Vieira, Francisca Salomé Monteiro
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/11899
• topic: Capreolus capreolus; Reference intervals

The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is an herbivorous mammal, which is well established in the Iberian Peninsula, specifically in North of Portugal. Its ecological niche is shared with other ruminants, and the species may be a reservoir or carrier of transmissible diseases, so the assessment of its health status is important. For this purpose, it is necessary to determine certain biochemical parameters, such as total proteins (TPs), albumin, globulins and acute phase proteins (APPs) as well as protein electrophoresis. However, currently, the literature presents few studies on this matter in roe deer, which does not allow us to know the normal values for this species. In view of this, the objective of this study was to determine the serum concentrations for the parameters mentioned above, perform protein electrophoresis, elaborate reference intervals (RI) to assess the health status of animals of this species, and also to estimate the effects of sex and age on the values obtained in 86 healthy animals (70 adults, 14 juveniles; 2 of unknown age; 31 males, 36 females and 19 of unknown sex). Blood samples were collected by physical methods in two different populations, from northern Portugal (Macedo de Cavaleiros) and Spain (Léon). All the treatment and processing of the samples was carried out in the clinical pathology laboratory of the Veterinary Hospital of UTAD and in the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Clinical Analysis Interlab-UMU, University of Murcia (Spain). The RI were estimated following the ASVCP guidelines with the Reference Value Advisor software. The obtained RI were 2.1 – 8.9 g/dl for total proteins (TPs), 1.1 – 4.2 g/dl for albumin, 0.8 – 5.0 g/dl for globulins, 0.4 – 118.5 µg/ml for Serum Amyloid A (SAA), 0.3 – 0.7 µmol/mlmin for Cholinesterase (ChE), 1.4 – 6.3 UI/l for Paraoxonase1 (PON1), 43.2 – 242.7 µg/l for Ferritin, 0.13 – 0.13 g/l for Haptoglobin (Hp), and 1.4 – 26.6 µg/ml for C-Reactive Protein (CRP). It was possible to verify the influence of sex and age on the concentrations of all serum biochemical parameters, with adult and female animals showing the highest concentrations. Regarding APPs, CRP showed statistical significant differences under the influence of sex (p=0.004) and SAA was statistical significant under the age factor (p=0.046). As far as we are aware, this was the first study on this topic for the species Capreolus capreolus.