Effect of vitamin C, electrolyte, and jaggery on transportation stress in different seasons on biochemical parameters of goats

Abstract

The road transport is known to be dangerous, leading to increased morbidity and death of animals. During the transport operation, animals are subjected to several stressors, such as inappropriate handling of loading and unloading, feed and water deprivation, long journey times, overcrowding, noise and vibration of the vehicle, and harsh environmental conditions, are well known to all having the potential to significantly weaken animal resistance to diseases by depriving cellular and humoral immunity (Fazio and Ferlazzo 2003). It includes handling, loading, and unloading, which is the most challenging time of the journey (Minka and Ayo 2008). Most research on the transport of goats is performed in temperate regions around the world (Rajion et al 2001), and there are still limited measures to alleviate transport stress for goats (Galipalli et al 2004 and Minka and Ayo 2007b). Transportation of Goat has recently expanded to include goat meat and skin worldwide (Minka and Ayo 2007). Higher mortality, morbidity, loss of live mass, malnutrition, and poor quality of meat result in significant losses because of hotdry and hot-humid seasons (Minka and Ayo 2007a,b).Stocking density is a primary determinant of animal welfare during transit (Fazio and Ferlazzo 2003). In contrast to medium and low stocking densities, higher transport stocking densities of the vehicle were closely linked to higher physiological stress and lower meat quality (Broom 2000).Glucose measures the blood sugar level, an energy source for each cell. High glucose levels can occur during a stressful situation. Low glucose levels occur when an animal does not eat or when there is a severe bacterial infection in the bloodstream. Plasma glucose is a commonly used physiological stress indicator during transportation (Broom 2003;Tadich et al 2005;Lopez et al 2006;Averos et al 2008). Transport stress has been identified as causing an increased level of glucose in the plasma due to liver disintegration of glycogen or the depletion of the skeletal muscle glycogen reserves (Kannan et al 2000;Tadich et al. 2005;Averos et al 2008). Animals, when transported through long distances, are submitted to intense stress, as well as water and food deprivation, leading to homeostatic changes, thus affecting glycogen concentrations and muscle pH (Burns et al 2014). Ponter et al (2003) studied the effects of repeated transportation in pregnant goats and their offspring; they reported that glucose concentrations were higher in transport goats compared to control goats on all days of transport (P < 0.01). An effect of the day of transport was observed on the glucose response (P < 0.01), with an increase from day 1 to day 9. Kumar et al (2003) studied the effect of road transport stress on the blood profile in the Mecheri breed of sheep. They found