Severe Thiamine Deficiency in Sheep with Acute Ruminal Lactic Acidosis

Abstract

Background: Thiamine status of ruminants is adversely affected in acidic rumen conditions. However, there have been limited published case study data related to thiamine deficiency of ruminants with acute ruminal lactic acidosis (ARLA).Hypothesis: Thiamine deficiency would occur in sheep with ARLA. Animals: Thirteen Ak-Karaman (white Karaman) sheep with ARLA, aged 1 year (ARLA group) and 10 healthy Ak-Karaman sheep, aged 1 year (control group) were used.Methods: After clinical examination, rumen fluid samples of all sheep were obtained with a stomach tube and examined immediately. Blood samples were taken from a jugular vein of the sheep. Erythrocytic transketolase enzyme activity and hence thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) effect were determined according to Clausen's method.Results: History revealed that all sheep in the ARLA group had accidentally consumed excessive amounts of cracked barley. During clinical examination of the ARLA group, disturbed general condition, engorged scleral vessels, moderate to severe dehydration, and ruminal atony were recorded in the sheep. The results of the ruminal fluid analyses of the ARLA group demonstrated characteristics of ARLA. The results of clinical and ruminal fluid examination of control group were normal. The mean TPP effect (%) in the ARLA group (109 AE 28) was significantly higher than in the control group (22.2 AE 3.7) (P o .001).Conclusions and Clinical Importance: The present study revealed that severe thiamine deficiency occurred in sheep with ARLA. This result indicates that thiamine administration to sheep suffering from acute ruminal acidosis caused by overconsumption of readily fermentable carbohydrates could be beneficial in alleviating thiamine deficiency caused by ruminal acidosis.

Comparative study of ruminal disorders with pathophysiology of ruminal fluid and hematological changes in sheep, Northwest Ethiopia

“…The reported clinical signs of animals suffering from ruminal alkalosis were in accordance with Radostits et al, (2007), Karapinar et al (2008), Mohamed (2014) and Shah and Hussain (2017). Respiration rate were found to be significantly (p<0.001) increased whereas ruminal motility (p<0.001) decreased in animals with ruminal alkalosis.…”

“…In the present study, the protozoal motility of animals suffering from alkaline indigestion was analyzed and graded. Karapinar et al (2008) recorded similar findings in sheep with alkalosis. The reason for the development altered protozoal motility might be due to improper utilization and storage of glycogen by rumen protozoa affected by toxic levels of ammonia.…”

Polioencephalomalacia Caused by Thiamine Deficiency in Sheep of Basrah Province, Iraq.

“…Thiamine pyrophosphate participates in the decarboxylation of keto acids and is also a coenzyme of transketolase. These enzymes play significant roles, especially in the metabolism of carbohydrates and independent specific roles in neurophysiology [4,19,20]. Therefore, thiamine deficiency causes a wide range of clinical appearances from anorexia to polioencephalomalacia because of the numerous functions of thiamine, which has been observed in the current study.…”

GC–MS analysis of the ruminal metabolome response to thiamine supplementation during high grain feeding in dairy cows

“…Under anaerobic condition, PFL is a central enzyme to degrade pyruvate to acetyl-CoA and the enzyme comprises the cofactors S-adenosylmethionine and thiamine diphosphate (TPP) (Knappe et al 1969 ). As the cofactor of PFL, thiamine content was detected significantly decreased when feeding SAID diet (Karapinar et al 2008 ; Pan et al 2016 ). As a result, the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl-CoA was restrained, and the superfluous pyruvate were then converted to lactate by lactate-producing bacteria such as S. bovis (Asanuma and Hino 2000 ) through LDH, which led to accumulation of lactate and SARA aggravation in dairy cows.…”

“…Interestingly, our previous study revealed that thiamine supplementation could attenuate high-concentrate diet induced SARA by decreasing ruminal lactate production and increasing ruminal pH value in rumen fluid (Pan et al 2016 ). The possible reason was that thiamine supplementation promoted carbohydrate metabolism, since thiamine is the coenzyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and α-ketoneglutaric acid dehydrogenase (α-KGDHC) in carbohydrate metabolism (Miller et al 1986 ; Karapinar et al 2008 ). However, it was not clear how thiamine supplementation affected the ruminal nutrient metabolism systematically in dairy cows.…”