Сельскохозяйственная биология, 2012, № 2, с. 45-50.

doi: 10.15389/agrobiology.2012.2.45eng

УДК 636.294:591.11

BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF BLOOD IN MALES AND FEMALES OF CARIBOU OF EVEN BREED

G.Ya. Bryzgalov

In the conditions of north of Far East in scientific-practical experiment the author studied the physiological norms and correlations between biochemical blood indices in adult caribou — she-deer and chorus of Even breed. It was established, that females reliable exceed of males in activity of amylase, content of cholesterol, lipoproteids and the sum of β- and β-globulins, but they have lesser content of total protein. The correlations between determinants confirm the differences in metabolism of females and males, and also the interdependency between parameters of nitrogenous, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in organism of animals. The norms and revealed correlations between examined parameters must be taking into account during diagnosing of diseases and breeding of caribou.

Keywords: reindeer, male, female, blood, physiological norms, correlations, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, amylase, total protein and its fractions, cholesterol, lipoproteins.

Haematological characteristics of animals depend on age, physiological status and environmental conditions. Biochemical blood indices – total protein and its fractions, enzymes - amylase, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), as well as cholesterol and lipoproteids - play a key role in functioning of animal organism and reflect its physiological state (1, 2). The ability to maintain homeostasis is a prerequisite for breeding work on animals. Animal breeds, high and low productive individuals differ by a number of hematological characteristics (3, 4). However, these items are poorly studied in reindeer of Russian Far North, which reduces their use in the practice of domestic reindeer husbandry.
The purpose of this work was establishing the physiological norm and correlations between biochemical blood indices of mature reindeers of Evenk breed.
Technique. The observations were carried out during a scientific-practical experiment (agricultural enterprise “Yubileyinyi”, Magadan province). Collection of the blood and storage of blood samples for biochemical analyzes were performed according to the accepted regulations (5). The blood was collected during corral activities from clinically healthy females (does older than 2 years, n = 31) and bucks (pedigree sires, n = 28) (random sampling). Total protein content was determined refractometrically, protein fractions –nephelometrically, AST and ALT activity – using the unified method of Raytman and Frenkel, amylase – by Karavey’s method, cholesterol - by Ilka method, b-lipoproteides – by the method of Burstein and Samai (6, 7) .
The obtained data were treated with variation statistics according to N.A. Plokhinsky (8). Norm of a trait was determined from the confidence limits of general mean M±t•m_M. Reliability criterion was specified at P = 0,95 and t = 2,0 corresponding to the first threshold probability level of exact forecasts implied in majority of zootechnical researches.
Results. Statistical characteristics of biochemical blood indices of does and bucks are presented in Table 1. According to the second function of normal distribution j(t) 68,3% animals of the studied population manifested the indicator values within М±1σ and 95,4 % —  within М±2σ, which practically coincides with limits of extreme values.

Amylase activity in does exceeded that of bucks by 34,9%, cholesterol - by 43,9%,  b-lipoproteids – by 61,0% (P> 0,999), which indicates more intense metabolism of glucose and lipid in reindeer females compared with males. On the contrary, males exceeded females at 12,5% by total protein content in serum (P> 0,99), while the latter demonstrated 29,0% higher content of b-globulins compared with bucks (P > 0,99).
g- and b-globulins provide humoral immunity (9). Does exceeded bucks by the sum of these characteristics (13,1%, P> 0,90), which can be a probable reason of better viability of reindeer females (10). In respect to other fractions of blood proteins and transferase activity (AST and ALT), no statistically reliable differences between males and females were found.
Values of blood indices exceeding a confidence interval of corresponding biochemical characteristics can be a symptom of metabolic abnormalities and deviations from the physiological norm affecting productivity performance and breeding value. In best pedigree animals selected by individual productivity (in reindeer husbandry of Russian Far North, evaluation by phenotype is still major and most available method) (11) biochemical blood indices must be within the specified range of values (Table 1). The content of total protein and its fractions, the activity of AST, ALT and amylase in the blood of mature animals are important for diagnostics of diseases and breeding activities. In respect to bucks-sires whose role in formation of a population gene pool is 20-30 times higher than that of females, such monitoring is necessary for successful breeding work on reindeer, because it helps to select animals with increased natural resistance (12).
In reindeer husbandry of Russian Far North it’s reasonable to perform hematological surveillance before mating season (late August – early September) when biochemical blood indices to the maximum extent characterize physiological potentials of animals needed for reproduction and survival in following hard winter with a lack of food. This time is also optimum for blood sampling and diagnostics as it coincides with the period of large-scale veterinary activities – enclosure of animals in corrals  and veterinary treatment.
The assessment of correlations between 11 biochemical blood indices in does and bucks has revealed among the 55 correlated  pairs only 7 statistically reliable pairs in males and 9 - in females, that is, 14,4% (Table 2). In other pairs, associations were  relatively weak or statistically insignificant (in terms of the applied range of discretion) suggesting only the trends.

Correlation coefficient of similar indices in bucks and does were found to be not always identical. Only 16 pairs of those were correlated close to an equal degree. For 12 pairs, correlation coefficients had opposite signs, which confirms the fact of gender-dependant differences in the metabolism of reindeer. The activity of ALT and AST playing an important role in nitrogen metabolism was correlated in males and females almost similarly: r amounts to 0,227-0,200. The conjugacy between amylase activity (catalyst of carbohydrates metabolism) and transaminases’ activity was different in males and females. In bucks, the corresponding correlation coefficient with ALT was positive, medium in value and statistically reliable (r = 0,505), but in does, on the contrary –  negative, weak and unreliable at a given number of degrees of freedom (r = 0,102). AST and amylase activity in females were medium correlated (r = 0,469) statistically significant, in contrast to males’ value – weak and unreliable (r = 0,047). The abovementioned data also confirm the fact gender-related differences in the metabolism of reindeer: males and females demonstrated an opposite correlation between the activity of ALT, AST and amylase.
AST activity was positively associated with albumins content in the blood serum (r = 0,240-0,417), which fact was statistically reliable in females. In does, the increase or decrease in AST activity was accompanied by controversial fluctuations of b-lipoproteids: correlation between the studied parameters was negative and sufficiently close (r = -0,688).   These data reflect the relationship between nitrogen and lipid metabolism, because plasma lipids are part of lipoproteids. The increase in AST activity was observed against a slight reduce in contents of b- and g-globulins in the blood serum due to the inverse correlation between these biochemical indices in both males and females: respectively, r =  -0,199...-0,133 and r =  -0,293... -0,364.  These data to some extent can indicate a probability of a weakened animal’s immunity.
In males, there was a direct strong correlation between cholesterol and β-lipoproteids  contents (r = 0,883). All cholesterol in the blood plasma is composed of lipoprotein complexes providing its transport (9), which is confirmed by high value of correlation coefficient. Changes in one of these indicators will cause a similar dynamics of the other. Cholesterol was also positively and reliably correlated with albumins content in both males and females (r = 0,350-0,505), which shows the relationship between lipid and protein composition of the blood in reindeer due to the formation of lipid-albumin complexes (9 ).
The established correlation coefficients (Table 2) show that relative composition of protein fractions doesn’t’ depend on total protein content  in the blood serum of reindeer (r values were small and unreliable).
The contents of albumins and g-globulins were found to be inversely correlated at close and almost equal degree in both males and females (r = -0,874…-0,875). Therefore, the change in albumin content leads to an opposite shift of γ-globulin. Albumins are the main reserve proteins associated with many properties of the blood serum and a number of metabolic processes. Disintegration of albumins  provides an opportunity of globulin synthesis; in this context, the content of globulin fractions increases in differentiated way (9), which was confirmed by unequal values of correlation coefficients.
In both does and bucks a negative correlation between contents of α₁- and α₂-globulins (r = -0,251…-0,286) was established, as well as between β- and γ-globulins (r = -0,242…-0,318) unreliable at the applied range of discretion but indicating a trend to a controversial dynamics of these protein fractions. 
Thus, the performed study of biochemical blood indices in mature reindeer males and females of Evenk breed has resulted in establishing the limits of physiological norm and correlations between individual characteristics, which data are suitable for the use in diagnostics of diseases and breeding practice in reindeer husbandry.

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