Minerals and trace elements status of blood serum of lactating goats in a semi-arid region of southwest of Haryana State, India

Abstract

Present study was undertaken to determine Beetal breed goats’ serum minerals and trace elements levels which were reared in an organized farm in semi-arid region of south-west of Haryana State, India. Ruminants selected for this study were of 2–6 years age group in post-calving lactation stage. For the quantification of minerals and trace elements, flame photometry and flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry were used, respectively. The results reported that average minerals (Na, K) concentration in goats’ serum was lesser but Ca levels were higher than the reference values. Average trace elements (Zn and Cu) concentration in serum was higher than reference values. For the descriptive statistics of the studied variables in goat serum, ORIGIN software package was used. With positive skewness values K, Ca and Zn had distribution towards higher range while Na, Fe and Cu with negative skewness values presented distribution in lower range. Zn represented leptokurtic distribution and also the right clustered scores. Copper with lower inter-quartile range was found to be the sole element which had data points clustered around the mean value. Almost equal arithmetic and geometric mean values of trace elements and minerals in goats’ serum suggested lesser spatial variation in the data.