Hematology and Biochemistry Reference Intervals for American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in South Florida, USA

Brandt, Laura A.; Jennings, Nicole D.; Squires, Michiko A.; Hackett, Caitlin; Smith, Christopher; Mazzotti, Frank J.

doi:10.7589/jwd-d-21-00142

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…However, we were unable to compare values reported in our study for CPK, A/G ratio, pr albumin, alpha-1 globulin pr and abs, alpha-2 globulin pr and abs, beta globulins pr and abs, gamma globulins pr and abs, corticosterone, hydroxybutyrate, and bile acids due to the lack of information. When comparing these analytes with a well-studied Alligatoridae, the American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis ) ( 36 ), we found much higher values for American crocodiles in CPK, A/G ratio, pr albumin, alpha-1 globulin abs, alpha-2 globulin pr and abs, beta globulin abs, corticosterone, and hydroxybutyrate ( Supplementary Table 5 ) and only pr alpha-1 globulin and pr beta globulin were higher in American alligators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Hematology and biochemistry reference intervals for American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) in South Florida

et al. 2022

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The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List across its range and classified as locally threatened in several countries. There is a lack of knowledge involving hematological and physiological parameters in American crocodile populations, limiting our understanding of what are considered “normal” blood analyte results for the species and how to link them with health assessments. In this study, we analyzed 40 hematological and biochemical parameters and estimated reference intervals (RIs) for 35 of them based on 436 clinically healthy wild American crocodiles caught in South Florida between 2015 and 2021. Crocodiles were captured across three areas with different levels of human influence [low = Everglades National Park (ENP), medium = Biscayne Bay Estuary (BBE), and high = Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant (TP)]. There was very strong-to-strong evidence for an effect of where animals were caught on five analytes: basophils %, phosphorus, proportion of (pr) alpha-2 globulins, absolute count (abs) of gamma globulins, and corticosterone, so no reference values were estimated but general statistics are presented and discussed. From the remaining analytes, we found no evidence that sex or size class had an effect on red blood cell (RBC), azurophils and monocytes abs, triglycerides, and albumin abs. However, we did find moderate-to-strong evidence that sex influenced azurophils % and size class influenced white blood cell (WBC), heterophils %, monocytes %, basophils abs, creatine phosphokinase (CPK), potassium, glucose, bile acids, alpha-1 globulin abs, and alpha-2 globulin pr and abs. Finally, there was strong evidence that both sex and size class influenced PCV, lymphocytes % and abs, eosinophils % and abs, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), calcium, sodium, chloride, total protein, albumin/globulin (A/G) ratio, albumin pr, alpha-1 globulin, and beta globulin abs. Intraspecific analysis showed that size is the variable that most influenced analytes explaining up to 29% of the variation, which relates to our findings based on intraindividual analysis. We compared our results with blood parameters reported for conspecifics as well as closely related species and discussed implication of those results for clinical diagnosis and American crocodile conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Hematology and biochemistry reference intervals for American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) in South Florida

et al. 2022

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“…This variability could be due to some intrinsic factors, such as genetic variations and sex (Campbell, 2014). Previous studies conducted in other crocodilians typically describe reference values of blood parameters for wild individuals (under natural conditions) or in controlled rearing situations (Brandt et al, 2022; Hamilton et al, 2016), and few investigations incorporate those parameters in stress studies (Miguel et al, 2020). This is the first report that incorporates stress situations to study variations in blood biochemical parameters and applies micro technique for measuring biochemical analytes of plasma of juvenile C. latirostris .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blood biochemistry parameters of Broad snouted caiman, Caiman latirostris subjected to stress conditions, appliying micro‐volume techniques

et al. 2023

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Plasma biochemistry values represent a crucial and minimally invasive tool for evaluating nutritional and physiological condition of the animal. Biochemical data provides valuable information in those species exposed to environmental stressors. In this study, we aimed to apply for the first time micro‐volume plasma tests to measured total plasma protein, albumin, and glucose in juvenile Caiman latirostris and to compare our results with other studies reporting crocodilian biochemistry values. We found that caimans from heat treatment were heavier, longer and had higher levels of glucose than those from the control group. Conversely, food restricted caimans had less growth, body condition and had 32.1% lower albumin concentrations than those from the control group. While no significant differences were observed in any parameters measured from water restricted caimans compared with control group. The values obtained for each of the biochemical determinations were lower than those previously reported for adult of C. latirostris, but similar finding for protein concentration compared with Alligator mississippiensis. Micro technique offers the advantage of increasing information and at the same time a greater physiological understanding of the crocodilians species.

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“…Although several hematological and biochemistry reference intervals for American alligators are currently available [ 14 ], these ranges were estimated based on the same data presented in this study, making them unusable (due to circularity) in our context. Despite this, it is reasonable to imply that alligators with better body condition in the Greater Everglades are within the biological optimal range for a given parameter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alligators are currently used as indicators of ecological responses to Everglades' restoration to help guide restoration efforts because their body condition is closely tied to hydrology [9], making the species a perfect study subject to understand how health conditions relate to changes in habitat. Independent research efforts have been done in the Everglades in the last decades to understand body condition [10][11][12] and hematological and biochemistry parameters [13,14]. However, there have been no published papers linking these two sets of variables to evaluate their relationships and the potential use of body condition as a composite metric of nutritional physiology, physical fitness, and health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body condition as a descriptor of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) health status in the Greater Everglades, Florida, United States

Balaguera-Reina,

Brandt,

Hernandez

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Body condition is used as an indicator of the degree of body fat in an animal but evidence of its actual relationship with health diagnostics (e.g., blood parameters) is usually lacking across species. In American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), body condition has been used as a performance metric within the Greater Everglades ecosystem to provide insight on hydrological and landscape changes on alligator populations. However, there is no clear evidence that spatial body condition changes relate to different health conditions (low food intake vs sickness) and whether this link can be made when relating body condition values with blood parameters. We assessed the relationship between alligator body condition and 36 hematological and biochemistry (blood) parameters in four areas across two physiographic regions (Everglades and Big Cypress) of the Greater Everglades (sample size = 120). We found very strong to weak evidence of linearity between 7 (Big Cypress) and 19 (Everglades) blood parameters and relative condition factor index, from which cholesterol (38%) and uric acid (41%) for the former and phosphorus (up to 52%) and cholesterol (up to 45%) for the latter (mean absolute error MAE = 0.18 each) were the predictors that individually explain most of the body condition variation. The best combination of blood parameters for the Everglades were cholesterol, phosphorus, osmolality, total protein, albumin, alpha 2, beta, and gamma globulins, and corticosterone accounting for 40% (37 ± 21%, MAE = 0.16) of the variation found in alligator body condition for this region. We found better predictability power in models when analyzed at smaller rather than larger scales showing a potential habitat effect on the body condition—blood parameters relationship. Overall, Everglades alligators in poorer condition are likely dehydrated or have an inadequate diet and the spatial differences found between physiographic regions suggest that these areas differ in prey availability/quality.

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Hematology and Biochemistry Reference Intervals for American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in South Florida, USA

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Hematology and biochemistry reference intervals for American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) in South Florida

Hematology and biochemistry reference intervals for American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) in South Florida

Blood biochemistry parameters of Broad snouted caiman, Caiman latirostris subjected to stress conditions, appliying micro‐volume techniques

Body condition as a descriptor of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) health status in the Greater Everglades, Florida, United States

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