Age-Related Serum Biochemical Reference Intervals Established for Unweaned Calves and Piglets in the Post-weaning Period

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to establish the influence of age on serum biochemistry reference intervals (RIs) for unweaned calves and recently-weaned piglets using large number of animals sampled at different ages from populations under different season trials. Specifically, milk replacer (MR)-fed calves from April–July 2017 ( n = 60); from December 2016–March 2017 ( n = 76) and from April–August 2018 ( n = 57) and one group of healthy weaned piglets ( n = 72) were subjected to the study. Serum enzymes and metabolites of calves at age of 24 h (24 h after colostrum intake), 2, 5, and 7 weeks from merged trials and piglets at 0, 7, and 14 days post-weaning (at 21, 28, and 35 days of age) were studied. The main variable is age whereas no major trial- or sex-biased differences were noticed. In calves, ALT, AST, GGT, GPx, SOD, NEFAs, triglycerides, glucose, creatinine, total protein, and urea were greatly elevated ( p < 0.001) at 24 h compared with other ages; glucose, creatinine, total protein, and urea constantly decreased through the age; cholesterol's lowest level ( p < 0.001) was found in 24 h compared with other ages and the levels of haptoglobin remained unchanged ( p > 0.1) during the study. In comparison with the adult RIs, creatinine from 24 h, NEFAs from 2 w, GGT from 5 w, and urea from 7 w are fully comparable with RIs or lie within RIs determined for adult. In piglets, no changes were noticed on glucose ( p > 0.1) and haptoglobin ( p > 0.1) and there were no major changes on hepatic enzymes (ALT, AST, and GGT), total protein, creatinine and urea even though several statistical differences were noticed on 7 days post-weaning. Cholesterol, triglycerides, NEFAs, cortisol and PigMAP were found increased ( p < 0.05) while TNF-alpha was found less concentrated ( p < 0.001) at 0 days post-weaning compared with other times. Moreover, the RIs of creatinine and GGT are fully comparable with RIs or lie within RIs determined for adult. In conclusion, clinical biochemistry analytes RIs were established for unweaned calves and recently-weaned piglets and among them some can vary at different ages.

Biochemistry and Immune Biomarkers Indicate Interacting Effects of Pre- and Postnatal Stressors in Pigs across Sexes

“…The average concentrations for most biochemistry analytes, including glucose, GGT, AST, creatinine, BUN, and cholesterol across all pigs and within the reference group of saline-treated pigs from control gilts, were consistent with levels reported for pigs [ 33 ]. The positive correlations between AST and GGT and between BUN and creatinine reflect that the first two enzymes are indicators of liver dysfunction [ 34 ], while the last two are indicators of renal dysfunction [ 35 ].…”

Reference Values of Hematological, Biochemical and Endocrinological Parameters in the Blood of Piglets Aged 1 and 21 Days

“…Biochemical parameters can be useful for estimating pig growth as certain deviations in these values can indicate smaller and higher birth weights in pigs (Kabalin et al, 2017). Separation (weaning) can lead to significant changes in piglet blood parameters (Yu et al, 2019). In modern pig production, the data obtained from laboratory blood tests are rarely used, most likely because of low costs of an individual animal and the fact that such data of great importance cannot be obtained from individual blood tests.…”

Metabolome and proteome changes in skeletal muscle and blood of pre-weaning calves fed leucine and threonine supplemented diets

“…Complete results are shown in Supplementary material (Table S 4). All blood biochemistry parameters were within the reference interval for this species [12].…”

“…Serum clinical chemistry analytes were determined with an Olympus AU400 analyzer (Olympus corp., Tokyo, Japan). Methods, reagents and intra-assay CV (%) were previously reported [12]. Plasma AA were determined by HPLC as described [11] with some modifications.…”