Abstract
Determination of the physiological electrophoretic patterns in animals is very useful for clinicians in diagnosing healthy and sick animals. The objective of this study was to investigate the serum protein electrophoretic pattern in cows, sheep, and goats in order to evaluate the differences in the size and number of protein fractions between the evaluated ruminant species. Ten adult multiparous high-yielding dairy cows, 10 adult female sheep and 10 adult female goats were included in this study. All the evaluated animals were clinically healthy. Serum was analyzed for total serum protein concentrations, and for the relative and absolute values of protein fractions with calculation of albumin/globulin ratios. Serum protein fractions were separated by zone electrophoresis on buffered agarose gel. Serum protein electrophoresis identified 6 distinct bands, comprising albumin, alpha1- (α1), alpha2- (α2), beta1- (β1), beta2- (β2), and gamma- (γ) globulins in cows. In sheep, serum proteins exhibited 6 fractions: albumin, α1-, α2-, β-, γ1- and γ2-globulins. In goats, serum proteins were separated into 5 fractions: albumin, α1-, α2-, β- and γ-globulins. Significant differences in the relative as well as absolute means were found for the albumin/globulin ratio and most of the protein fractions, except γ-globulins. No significant differences were found in the concentration of total proteins. These results describe the marked species differences in most of serum protein fractions between the evaluated groups of animals, and contribute to the current knowledge about the physiological electrophoretic pattern of serum proteins in ruminants, which can be used for diagnostic purposes.
Highlights
Determination of the physiological electrophoretic patterns in animals is very useful for clinicians in diagnosing healthy and sick animals
According to Luraschi et al (2003), the protein patterns and numbers of peaks obtained are dependent on the sensitivity of the electrophoresis used
A frequent difficulty in dealing with serum protein electrophoresis of domestic animals is the difference in the normal physiological pattern between the species
Summary
Determination of the physiological electrophoretic patterns in animals is very useful for clinicians in diagnosing healthy and sick animals. Protein electrophoresis has been extensively used as an effective diseasescreening tool in human medicine for many years, this technique is not commonly used in veterinary medicine (Wijnen and Van Dieijen-Visser 1996; O’Connell et al 2005) This test has low specificity in the diagnosis, determination of the physiological electrophoretic patterns in all domestic animals and correct interpretation of their results is very useful for clinicians in diagnosing healthy and infected animals (Lutz et al 2009). The aim of this study was to determine the physiological serum protein electrophoretic pattern for selected ruminant species, and to describe the possible differences in protein fractions between the evaluated groups of animals
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