Assessment of Oxidative Status in Foot Diseases of Sheep

Background: Oxidative stress plays an important role in the etiology and/or progression of various diseases in the livestock. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between foot diseases and oxidant and antioxidant levels, determining catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO) and glutathione (GSH) concentrations in sheep with foot disease such as interdigital dermatitis, footrot and interdigital pouch infection (biflex canal inflammation).Materials, Methods & Results: In the study, a total of 70 sheep aged between 1 and 3, 20 sheep with interdigital dermatitis, 20 with foot-rot, 10 with interdigital pouch inflammation and 20 clinically healthy Akkaraman sheep, were used. The blood samples collected from the V. Jugularis of the sheep were centrifuged and their serums were obtained. MDA and NO levels of the sheep with interdigital dermatitis, footrot and interdigital pouch infection were found to be significantly higher than those of animals in the control group (P 0.05). We found that serum MDA and NO levels were found to significantly increase in sheep with foot disease and serum CAT levels were found to be significantly lower. The results of this research indicate that MDA, NO and CAT activities may be more reliable parameters than GSH-Px and GSH activities in order to determine oxidative stress in sheep with foot diseases. In conclusion, this study reveals that there is a relationship between foot diseases and oxidant/antioxidant balance in sheep and it shows that the oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation develop due to the increase of free radicals