Effect of some environmental factors on hematological parameters in apparently healthy Iraqi Awassi sheep
Firas Rashad Al-Samarai and Wathiq Ali Hasson Al-Jbory
The present study was conducted to determine some hematological parameters of Awassi sheep belonged to five regions (Shula, Abu-Ghraib, Mahmoudia, Yousifia, and Alameel) in the West and South of Baghdad during the period from December to February, 2015-2016. Further, it was also, aimed to investigate the effect of the sex, age, and regions on the studied parameters. A total of 150 apparently healthy Awassi sheep (93male and 57 female) included in this study. Results showed that the mean of Red blood cell (RBC) packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), total white blood cell count (WBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were 7.91x106/µl, 26.52%, 8.24 g/dL, 8.64x106/µl, 32.61 fl, 10.63 pg and 32.73 g/dL respectively.
Statistical analysis shows that the effect of region was significant (P<0.05) on all parameters. The effect of sex was significant (P<0.05) on all parameters except the WBC and MCHC. The effect of age was not significant. The results obtained from this study could serve as reference values for Awassi sheep, However, further study is needed to estimate the hematological reference values of healthy Awassi sheep by using Reference Value Advisor method to get more reliable estimations.