Comparative study of the blood gas transport in high altitude and sea level camelidae and goats

Abstract

Oxygen dissociation curves of the bloods of 4 species of high altitude camelids (vicuña, alpaca, llama and guanaco), and the mountain goat, Himalayan Tahr, have been studied. In the four high altitude camelid species, there was a shift of the curves to the left when compared to their lowland relative, Camel dromedarius. In the mountain goat, the curve was shifted to the left of that of the domestic goat when blood lactates were high, but the shift disappeared when metabolic acidosis was corrected by addition of bicarbonates. Alkali denaturation and electrophoretic patterns did not show significant differences between the hemoglobins of high- and low-land camelids. CO 2 dissociation curves of the bloods of llama and guanaco were not significantly different from those of other mammalian species.