Morphometric Analysis and Characterization of Peripheral Blood Cells in the Golden Tree Snake <i>Chrysopelea ornata</i> (Shaw, 1802)

Abstract

Reptile hematology provides important information to help assessment of health conditions and other reptile physiology and for biomarker discovery. The current hematology of snake from natural habitats of Thailand with morphological measurement is still rarely explored. In the present study, the extensive investigation on the morphometric analysis and characteristics of blood cells in the golden tree snake Chrysopelea ornata (Shaw, 1802) was examined and compared between sexes. Here we found that the majority of the squamate blood cells were erythrocyte in both sexes of this snake. It had the typical erythrocyte morphology showing eclipse shape with a central nucleus without significant difference between males and females. White blood cells (or leukocytes) in the snakes were a heterogeneous group with different nucleus shape and also shared a similar size between sexes. Interestingly, the length of thrombocytes was significantly different (P 0.05): longer in the male and shorter in the female snakes. From the blood smear technique, the heterogeneous group of the snake leukocyte included azurophil, heterophils neutrophil, basophil, lymphocyte, and monocyte without eosinophil. Remarkably, the highest proportion of the snake leukocyte was lymphocyte, followed by azurophils, and neutrophil. This proportion was similar in both sexes. The results from our hematological analysis could be provided as hematology-based health monitoring of the wild population for C. ornata in our land and other countries.