Objective: Evaluation of serum vitamin E status and its Correlation with erythrocyte osmotic fragility in sheep.
Design: Observational study.
Animals: sheep.
Procedure: Blood samples were collected from 223 clinically healthy sheep from different ages of Gezel and Makoei breeds. The animals were assigned into 3 age groups: less than lyear, 1 to 2 years and >2 years old. Serum vitamin E concentrations were determined using HPLC method . Osmotic fragility test (OFT) was carried out by preparing hypotonic saline solution. Mean corpuscular fragility (MCF) was assessed by OFT.
Statistical Analysis: Data was analyzed by SPSS, using one-way analysis of variance (Duncan’s test). Regression correlation analysis was used to estimate an appropriate equation.
Results: Mean and standard deviation of serum vitamin E in sheep less than 1 year, between 1-2 years and >2 years old were 20.78±1.46, 23.31±0.82 and 23.31±0.82 µg/ml and for MCF were 0.52±0.018,0.47±0.018 and 0.49±0.014 g/dl, respectively. Comparison of the means among three groups showed significant differences (P<0.001) for both vitamin E and MCF values. Regression correlation analysis showed that rising the age of the animals increased vitamin E Levels (r=0.64, P<0.001) and decreased MCF values (r=-0.70, P<0.001). There was a negative correlation between vitamin E and MCF values (r=-0.91, P<0.001). According to this finding, estimated regression equation for vitamin could be as Y = -48.24X + 46.20 (r2 = 0.83, P<0.001); Y = Vit.E (µg/ml), X = MCF (g/dl)
Clinical implications: According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that OFT (MCF) is a cheap and easy method for evaluation of vitamin E status in sheep. J.Fac. Vet. Med. Univ. Tehran. 61,2:155-159,2006.
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