The Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) population in Southeast Asia faces
threats such as poaching and deforestation. Health assessments of rescued individuals
including physical examination and blood work are crucial for clinicians to determine the
health status of these animals. The establishments of reference intervals of hematology
and serum biochemistry are important for identifying clinical abnormalities. The
objectives of our study were to establish blood reference intervals for Sunda pangolins,
to determine if there are age and sex related differences in hematology and serum
biochemistry, and to compare our results with those of a previous study on confiscated
Sunda pangolins in Thailand. Fifty-eight Sunda pangolins were rescued between January 2011
and December 2015. The hematology and serum biochemistry results of 51 clinically normal
Sunda pangolins were selected for the establishment of the blood reference intervals. No
sex related differences were noted in this study. Age-related differences were observed,
in which adult Sunda pangolins had a significantly higher mean corpuscular volume than
juveniles, and juvenile Sunda pangolins had significantly higher red blood cell counts and
hemoglobin levels than those of the adults (P<0.05). Age-related
differences were also noted in several serum biochemistry parameters: alkaline phosphatase
(ALP) was significantly higher in juveniles, and total protein was significantly higher in
adult Sunda pangolins. Compared to a previous study the white blood cell counts,
neutrophil counts, and ALP were higher, and the lymphocyte counts were lower in the
present study.
Due to an unfortunate turn of events, the surname of the third author appeared incorrectly in the original publication as it should have read Douay. The original article has been corrected, and the proper representation of the authors' names and their affiliation is also listed here.
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