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Acid-base status and hematology values for zoo population of female Grant's zebra (Equus quagga boehmi)

Blood analyses on acid-base status and hematologic values could be of interest in assessing disease, nutritional status, habitat quality, environmental stressors as well as in prediction of the success of reintroduction and translocation programs. Establishment of reference values in wild animals is extremely complex and there are no consistent referent values available in scientific literature. Our aim was to report acid-base status and hematological values for captive Grant’s zebra and to compare these values with other present in literature. The study was carried out at Osijek Zoo on 12 Grant's zebra. Blood samples were taken from the v. cavae cranialis for establishing of the number of erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets, levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit for hematology and blood pH, pCO2, pO2, Na+, K+, HCO3-, base excess of extracellular fluid and oxygen saturation for acid-base status. Results for sodium and chloride values were lower than reference values in captive wildlife and within range for potassium in comparison to our results. The values for sodium and potassium were similar to the reference values for healthy horses and the values for chloride were lower. Chloride values were very similar to ours for captive wild horses and Burns wild horses, but slightly different for Salmon wild horses and utility horses. PH values were very similar to the values in healthy horses. MCHC values were much higher in our trial than values reported for zebras. Values for MCV were lower and values for MCH were higher than values in captive wildlife. In comparison to domestic and wild horses, the zebras in our trial also had similar values for hematological parameters. The relative differential revealed a predominance of neutrophils. Similar values between zebras and domestic horses could explain their adaptation to the zoo environment and that stimuli that usually change hematological values in wild animals are not present to a high degree. We can assume that there will be significant deviations of our results from the values for the zebra population living in their natural environment.

Grant’s Zebra; Biochemistry; Acid-base status; Hematology

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