It is generally acknowledged that hematology may provide information about disease states, performance problems, but also about equine welfare and fitness in race horses. Hematologic data are available for horses in general, but most of them are referred to thourghbred horses reared in their native English countries. Based on the assumption that age, sex, management, as well as and the geographical location of the breeding sites may affect the results of hematologic values, this study focused the attention on standarbred trotters reared in Italy; then a trial protocol was established to check the amount of variation in the hematologic parameters and to calculate their reference intervals. Blood samples were collected from 100 healthy trotters, reared in different horse stables in Southern Italy. Hematologic parameters were screened and microscopic search for the parasites in the red cells was performed. Descriptive statistics were estimated for the hematologic data. In addition, variance analysis was performed by the GLM procedure including adjustment for gender and age. The results indicate that standarbred trotters reared in Italy, when compared with normal blood values for horse in the literature, appear to be characterized by erythrocytes which are more in number, but smaller in size and lower in Hb content. Particularly, our average MCV and MCH are of 42 ± 2.62 fl and 15.50 ± 0.91 pg, while normal range reported in references are MCV=46.1 ± 4.0 fl and MCH=16.3 ± 1.4 pg. Moreover in the present study, MCV was bigger in males than in females (42.42 vs 40, 79 fl; P=0.02) while MCHC was lower (36.87 vs 37.18 g/dl; P=0.04) and the effect of age was significant for RBC (P=0.0005), MCV (<0.0001) and MCH (<0.0001). Three years old trotters, in particular, reported higher number of RBC, but with lower MCV and MCH respect to adult horses (aged from 5 to 10 years). Conclusively this study provides new reference values useful for veterinarians and equine technicians practicing in Italy, to assess the welfare status of healthy trotters
Observation on the hematology of Standarbred horse in training and racing in Italy
PADALINO, Barbara;RUBINO, Giuseppe Tomm.Rob;
2013-01-01
Abstract
It is generally acknowledged that hematology may provide information about disease states, performance problems, but also about equine welfare and fitness in race horses. Hematologic data are available for horses in general, but most of them are referred to thourghbred horses reared in their native English countries. Based on the assumption that age, sex, management, as well as and the geographical location of the breeding sites may affect the results of hematologic values, this study focused the attention on standarbred trotters reared in Italy; then a trial protocol was established to check the amount of variation in the hematologic parameters and to calculate their reference intervals. Blood samples were collected from 100 healthy trotters, reared in different horse stables in Southern Italy. Hematologic parameters were screened and microscopic search for the parasites in the red cells was performed. Descriptive statistics were estimated for the hematologic data. In addition, variance analysis was performed by the GLM procedure including adjustment for gender and age. The results indicate that standarbred trotters reared in Italy, when compared with normal blood values for horse in the literature, appear to be characterized by erythrocytes which are more in number, but smaller in size and lower in Hb content. Particularly, our average MCV and MCH are of 42 ± 2.62 fl and 15.50 ± 0.91 pg, while normal range reported in references are MCV=46.1 ± 4.0 fl and MCH=16.3 ± 1.4 pg. Moreover in the present study, MCV was bigger in males than in females (42.42 vs 40, 79 fl; P=0.02) while MCHC was lower (36.87 vs 37.18 g/dl; P=0.04) and the effect of age was significant for RBC (P=0.0005), MCV (<0.0001) and MCH (<0.0001). Three years old trotters, in particular, reported higher number of RBC, but with lower MCV and MCH respect to adult horses (aged from 5 to 10 years). Conclusively this study provides new reference values useful for veterinarians and equine technicians practicing in Italy, to assess the welfare status of healthy trottersI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
