The biochemical and haematological profiles of 379 pigs with or without various gross pathological lesions in an abattoir in Zimbabwe were studied to see whether there were any differences between the levels of haematological and biochemical values, and health status (with and without pathological lesions). On the basis of observable gross pathology, 134 pigs were classified as having one or more subclinical lesions (liver milk spot, pneumonia, pleurisy, pericarditis, abscesses and arthritis). Seventy six of these were males and 58 females. There were observable sex differences in the mean haematological and biochemical values obtained. Erythrocyte counts showed significant differences in mean values (P < 0,05) among groups of pigs found with various pathological lesions. The biochemical values showed significant group differences for ALP, ALT. AST, and LDH.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.University of Zimbabwe Research Boardmn201

Hill, F.W.G.

Majok, A.A.

Makinde, M.O.

The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.The biochemical and haematological profiles of 379 pigs with or without various gross pathological lesions in an abattoir in Zimbabwe were studied to see whether there were any differences between the levels of haematological and biochemical values, and health status (with and without pathological lesions). On the basis of observable gross pathology, 134 pigs were classified as having one or more subclinical lesions (liver milk spot, pneumonia, pleurisy, pericarditis, abscesses and arthritis). Seventy six of these were males and 58 females. There were observable sex differences in the mean haematological and biochemical values obtained. Erythrocyte counts showed significant differences in mean values (P < 0,05) among groups of pigs found with various pathological lesions. The biochemical values showed significant group differences for ALP, ALT. AST, and LDH.University of Zimbabwe Research Boardmn201

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Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 63:11-14 (1996) Biochemical and haematological values in abattoir pigs with and without subclinical lesions M.O. MAKINDE, A.A. MAJOK aAd F.W.G. HILL Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Zimbabwe P.O. Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe ABSTRACT MAKINDE, M.O., MAJOK,A.A. & HILL, F.W.G. 1996. Biochemical and haematological values in abat-toir pigs with and without subclinical lesions. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 63:11-14 The biochemical and haematological profiles of 379 pigs with or without various gross pathological lesions in an abattoir in Zimbabwe were studied to see whether there were any differences between the levels of haematological and biochemical values, and health status (with and without pathological lesions) . On the basis of observable gross pathology, 134 pigs were classified as having one or more subclinical lesions (liver milk spot, pneumonia, pleurisy, pericarditis, abscesses and arthritis). Seventy-six of these were males and 58 females. There were observable sex differences in the mean haematolo-gical and biochemical values obtained. Erythrocyte counts showed significant differences in mean values (P < 0,05) among groups of pigs found with various pathological lesions. The biochemical values showed significant group differences for ALP, ALT. AST, and LDH. Keywords: Abbattoir, biochemical, haematological , lesions, pathological, subclinical, values INTRODUCTION In a recent study of apparently healthy pigs slaugh-tered in an abattoir in Zimbabwe, it frequently oc-curred that a substantial number of carcases showed single or multiple lesions of peritonitis, pericarditis, pneumonia, pleurisy and abscessation (Makinde, Majok, Hill 1993) requiring trimming of the carcase and partial condemnation. Recently Cybulshy, Chan & Morat (1988) and Odink, Smeets, Visser, Sand-man & Snijders (1990) found that inflammatory le-sions in pigs result in marked changes in haematolo-gical and biochemical values. to determine whether deviations from the normal val-ues/range occurred. The aim of this investigation was to compare haema-tological and biochemical findings in slaughtered pigs in Zimbabwe with and without pathological lesions Accepted for publication 28 November 1995-Editor MATERIALS AND METHODS The investigation was carried out at a private abat-toir that slaughters an average of 600 pigs a day tor bacon, pork and pork-meat products. Visits to the abattoir were made twice a week for 8 weeks. All the pigs in four adjacent pens out of the ten pens in the ante mortem room were selected as a convenient sample and those selected per visit came from one or more intensive commercial piggeries. The pigs se-lected had numbered plastic tags securely tied to their lett forelimbs, immediately above their hoots, so that they could be followed through the processing and carcase-evaluation rooms. Altogether 379 pigs of both sexes and of ages varying from 7 months and above, were used for this investigation. Blood was 11 Biochemical and haematological values in abattoir pigs collected on the production line by exsanguination into two bottles (one containing 1 m~ of heparin solu-tion and the other without anticoagulant) . The car-cases were dressed, washed and opened for exami-nation by the company's meat inspectors who were under veterinary supervision, and also by one of the authors who is a veterinarian. The grossly observ-able lesions recorded were liver milk spot, pneumo-nia, pleurisy, pericarditis, abscesses and arthritis. All carcases with one or more of such gross lesions, or without lesions, were matched with their blood sam-ples collected before slaughter. Records did not re-late age to specific lesions. The following haematological parameters were de-termined on the day of blood collection : erythrocyte and leucocyte counts, leucocyte differential count, haemoglobin and haematocrit. Serum samples were separated by centrifugation and stored at -20°C be-fore analysis . The erythrocyte and leucocyte counts and haematocrit were determined by use of a coul -ter counter (Cou lter, Electronics). Total protein and albumin contents were determined by means of their respective kits , Biuret and bromocresol green , re-spectively, on an autoanalyser. The following enzyme activities were determined at 3JCC by means of their respective kits (Electro-Nucleonics Inc., The Neth-erlands): alkaline phosphatase (ALP) , alanine aminotransferase (ALT) , aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Urea, crea-tinine and cholesterol were determined by means of their respective kits (Electro-Nucleonics Inc., The Neth-erlands). The serum electrolytes: calcium (Ca++), magnesium (Mg++), phosphorous, sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) were determined by the principle of ion-selective electrodes by means of Starlyte II (Pharmacia Diagnostics Inc., The Netherlands). The data were analysed by means of BMDP statis-tical software, version 1990 (IBM/PC/DOS) (Dixon 1983). In particular, BMDP 7D was used to gener-ate descriptive statistics for the data and to perform one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to assess the significance of group difference (at a= 0,05) . Spe-cifically, one-way ANOVAwas used to compare pigs with each of the three most common combinations of lesions, e.g. liver milk spot and pleurisy (one of the two next most common combinations; four groups compared) . RESULTS Of the 379 pigs examined , 134 had one or more grossly observable lesions. Of these pigs, 76 were males and 58 females (Table 1 ). Pneumonia (alone and/or in combination) accounted for 20,8% of gross pathological lesions, while liver milk spot was present in 17,4% of the pigs. Other pathological lesions oc-curring alone and in combination were less than 1% (Table 1 ). The mean haematological values were 12 higher in the healthy female pigs than the male ones (Table 2) . Only RBC showed significant mean differences (P < 0,05) between major combinations of pathology (Table 3). By inspection, pigs with respiratory lesions (pneumonia and pleurisy) had lower RBC counts , decreased Hb and PCV values and increased WBC counts, when compared with pigs that had only milk spot. Gender differences were observed in some of the normal biochemical values in the healthy pigs too ; ALP, AST and creatinine , specifically, were higher in the male pigs, while ALT, LDH and cholesterol mean values were higher in the female pigs. Consequently, the activities of ALP and AST were higher in male pigs with pathological lesions than in female pigs of similar pathological status, while the reverse was true for ALT and LDH (Table 4). The calcium level was higher in the female pigs of both groups than in the male pigs. DISCUSSION In this study it is revealed that pneumonia and ascari-asis occurred more frequently at subclinical levels in the abattoir pigs; and these agree with our earlier findings of 17,4% (pneumonia) and 16,4% (liver milk spot) (Makinde eta/. 1993). The mean haematologi-cal values either increased or decreased with sub-clinical pathological lesions and when these values were compared with those of the healthy pigs, the differences were small and within the normal range for pigs, but they became significant with multip le pathological lesions, as shown for example with pneumonia and ascariasis. The marked changes in the haematological values-as shown with leukocy-tosis, reduced haematocrit, haemoglobin and eryth-rocyte counts in pigs with inflammatory changes of the lungs and bronchi-are the usual characteristics associated with these diseases (Cybulshy et at. 1988). The mean biochemical values changed similarly with pathological lesions, and these were minimal in to-tal protein , albumin and the electrolytes, but marked in ALP, ALT, AST, LDH, creatinine and cholesterol. Some of these enzymes are liver-specific and there-fore serve as index of hepatocellu lar disorder (Kra-mer 1989). Ascarid larval migrans induce increases in serum transaminase activities (Kramer, 1989) and this correlates with our observed elevated values in ALP and AST. For instance, ALP as one of the cho-lestatic enzymes, becomes elevated during chole-stasis from either intrahepatic or extrahepatic bile ductular or duct obstructions. The increase in the ALP activity has been attributed to the overproduction of the hepatic ALP isoenzyme (Cornelius 1989). In the case of AST, it is known not to be organ-specific as, in addition to high concen-M.O. MAKIN DE, A.A. MAJOK & F.W.G. HILL TABLE 1 Classification based on status and sex, of the pigs examined in an abattoir in Zimbabwe (n = 379) Affected pigs Males Females Status n % n % n % Healthy 245 64,60 141 37,20 104 27,40 Pneumonia only 55 14,50 31 8,20 24 6,30 Milkspot only 33 8,70 19 5,00 14 3,70 Pericarditis on ly 2 0,53 2 0,53 0 -Pleurisy only 2 0,52 1 0,26 1 0,26 Milkspot +pneumonia 21 5,50 13 3,40 8 2, 10 Milkspot +pleurisy 5 1,36 4 1,10 1 0,26 Milkspot +pericarditis 3 0,79 2 0,53 1 0,26 Pneumonia+ pericarditis 3 0,79 1 0,26 2 0,53 Pericarditis+ pleurisy 5 1,36 4 1,10 1 0,26 Abscess+ arthritis 1 0,26 0 - 1 0,26 Pericarditis + abscess 1 0,26 0 - 1 0,26 Milkspot +arthritis 1 0,26 0 - 1 0,26 Milkspot +pneumonia+ pericarditis 2 0,52 1 0,26 1 0,26 Milkspot +pneumonia+ pleurisy 1 0,26 0 - 1 0,26 Peritonitis+ pleurisy+ pericarditis 1 0,26 0 - 1 0,26 / TABLE 2 Haematological values of pigs in an abattoir in Zimbabwe, with and without pathological conditions Males without lesion Males with lesion Females without lesion Females with lesion Haematological (n= 30) (n= 48) (n= 26) (n= 24) characteristic x SD x SD x SD x SD RBC x 10/Q 6,2 0,9 5,9 1,1 6,6 0,6 6,0 0,9 PCV/Q 39,4 6,6 36,9 9,8 44,3 6,2 39,5 8,9 Hb g/dQ 13,7 1,8 13,1 2,7 14,5 1,7 14,0 2,0 WBC x 10/Q 18,1 3,2 23,4 6,1 20,7 4,3 17,8 4,2 MCVfQ 62,7 5,8 63,5 5,5 65,2 7,4 39,5 8,9 MCHpg 22,7 3,9 22,4 3,0 22,1 1,2 23,3 2,3 MCHCg/dQ 35,5 6,4 35,1 4,9 33,3 3,1 36,6 6,1 Neutrophils % 52,2 11,0 68,2 9,0 68,3 6,5 67,6 7,1 Lymphocytes % 45,2 11 '1 29,0 7,6 29,7 5,9 29,0 6,5 Monocytes % 2,6 1,3 2,0 1,3 15,0 0,7 3,4 2,1 Eosinophils % 2,2 1,3 1,3 0,5 1,2 0,0 1,8 0,5 Band% 2,0 1,4 2,0 0,9 1,5 1 '1 2,1 1,0 x = Sample mean value SD = Sample standard deviation TABLE 3 One-way analyses of variance of haematological values among groups of pigs in Zimbabwe, with various combinations of lesions Haematological values Lesions RBC MCV PCV WBC Hb x SD x SD x SD x SD x SD Pneumonia on ly 5,7 1 '1 60,8 3,7 37,1 8,7 21,0 13,1 13,1 2,8 Milk spot on ly 6,5 1,5 64,9 6,4 40,1 8,2 22,4 7,8 14,6 3,9 Milk spot+ pneumonia 5,4 1,3 62,2 10,8 35,7 10,0 22,6 6,0 12,6 3,1 Milk spot+ pleurisy 5,7 1,4 60,6 10,4 37,9 9,5 22,1 7,3 12,5 3,0 F-value 3,91 0,31 3,00 0,96 0,99 df 1 1 1 1 1 P-value 0,05 0,58 0,09 0,33 0,32 x = Sample mean value SD = Sample standard deviation 13 Biochemical and haematological values in abattoir pigs TABLE 4 Biochemical values of pigs with and without pathological conditions, in an abattoir in Zimbabwe Males without Males with Females without Females with Blood chemistry lesion (n = 30) lesion (n = 48) lesion (n = 26) lesion (n = 24) x so x Total protein g/Q 75,2 5,4 68,4 Albumin g/Q 46,4 2,8 47,3 Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) IU/Q 331 ,3 87,6 408,9 ALT IU/Q 43,9 7,0 60,4 AST IU/Q 46,5 17,6 64,1 LDHIU/Q 4,5 17,6 5,0 Creatinine mmoi/Q 168,0 26,0 163,0 Cholesterol mmoi/Q 2,9 1,0 2,7 Ca mmoi/Q 2,4 0,2 2,5 Mg mmoi/Q 0,9 0,1 1,0 Phosphorus mmoi/Q 2,8 0,5 3,0 Na mmoi /Q 156,0 5,0 154,0 K mmoi/Q 6,5 0,8 x = Sample mean value SO = Sample standard deviation trations in the skeletal and cardiac muscles, AST activities are also high in the liver, as well as other organs and tissues, including red-blood cells (Cardi-net, Litterell & Freedland 1967). We observed differ-ences in AST activities due to sex, which is contrary to what is reported in the literature on domestic spe-cies , with the exception of cows (Roussel and Stall-cup 1966). The increased ALP and AST activities in our study are also at variance with those of Odink eta/. (1990) in a similar investigation carried out in the Nether-lands. This difference may be a reflection of the de-gree of inflammatory processes obtained in those pigs with subclinical diseases. Also , our designation of "lesions" may be crude in that different locations, types and severities of lesions were combined into a single category. Generally, the haematological and biochemical val-ues obtained in this study for the healthy pigs were at some variance with similar ones in literature and this could be attributed to the fact that these are slaughterhouse pigs that have been subjected to much physical activity which has been reported to cause higher values for ASTin horses, and for LDH in pigs (Cornelius 1989). However, the study revealed changes in the haematological and biochemical pa-rameters of pigs with pathological lesions. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the University of Zimba-bwe Research Board for the research grant awarded. The technical assistance of Mrs Karen Young, Mr F. 14 6,2 so x so x so 13,4 71,2 5,2 70,9 10,3 10,3 45,7 5,2 43,3 7,5 190,6 257,2 116,2 255,0 99,0 33 ,8 50,7 7,8 72,4 43,3 47,8 34,0 14,2 41 ,6 25,0 1,4 5,6 1,6 6,0 1,8 25,0 156,0 27,0 161 ,0 61 ,6 1,2 4,5 2,3 2,4 0,8 0,2 3,1 0,2 3,3 0,9 0,2 1,0 0,1 1,2 0,5 0,5 2,4 0,4 2,5 0,5 4,8 154,0 2,5 153,0 7,0 0,9 7,5 1,3 7,1 1,6 Chimudzi, Ms K.A. Wray and Mr A. Murondoti is also acknowledged. REFERENCES CARD I NET Ill , G. H., LITIERELL, J.F. & FREEDLAND, R.A. 1967. Comparative investigations of serum creatine phosphokinase and glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase activities in equine para-lytic myoglobinuria. Research in Veterinary Science, 8:219. CONNER, J.G. & ECKERSHALL, P.O. 1986. Acute phase re-sponse and mastitis in the cow. Research in Veterinary Science, 41:126. CORNELIUS, C.E. 1989. Liver function, in Clinical biochemistry of domestic animals, 4th ed ., edited by J.J. Kaneko. London : Academic Press . CYBULSHY, M.J ., CHAN, M.K.W. & MORAT, H.Z. 1988. Biology of disease. Acute inflammation and microthrombosis induced by endotoxin , interleukin-1 , and tumor necrosis factor and their implication in Gram-negative infection. Laboratory Investigation, 58:365. DINARELLO, C.A. 1985. An update on human interleukin-1: from molecular biology to clinical relevance. Journal for Clinical Im-munology, 5:287. DIXON, W.J. 1983. BMDP statistical software. Berkely: University of California Press . KRAMER, J.W. 1989. Clinical Enzymology, in Clinical biochemis-try of domestic animals, 4th ed. , edited by J.J. Kaneko. London: Academic Press . MAKIN DE, M.O. , MAJOK, A.A. & HILL, F.W.G. 1993. The preva-lence of subclinical diseases in abbattoir pigs in Zimbabwe. Preventitive Veterinary Medicine, 15:19-24. ODINK, J., SMEETS, J.F.M., VISSER, I.J .R. , SANDMAN, H. & SNIJDERS, J.M.A. 1990. Haematological and clinicochemical profiles of healthy swine with inflammatory processes. Journal of Animal Science, 68:163. ROUSSEL, J.D. & STALLCUP, O.T. 1966. Influence of age and season on phosphatase and transaminase activities in blooc serum of bulls. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 27: 1527-1530. 

Biochemical and haematological values in abattoir pigs with and without subclinical lesions

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Biochemical and haematological values in abattoir pigs with and without subclinical lesions

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