Endogenous Factor Effects on Clinical Biochemistry Tests for Health Status in Sheep

The biochemical and common blood tests for the Romanov sheep relative to their physiological condition, age, sex, and productive performance were analyzed to reveal correlations between the common and biochemical tests in order to identify the metabolic biomarkers. The blood samples collected from ewes 30 (n = 15) and 90 days (n = 14) after lambing and the lambs at the age of 1 (n = 15), 3 (n = 14), and 4 (n = 13) months were studied. The blood serum and whole blood specimens were analyzed with the ERBA XL-640 automatic biochemistry analyzer and the Micros CC-20 Plus hematology analyzer, respectively. The levels of blood total protein, albumins, globulins, creatinine, AST activity, and cholesterol in lactating ewes significantly decrease by 16.79 (p ≤ 0.001), 13.27 (p ≤ 0.01), 18.84 (p ≤ 0.01), 11.76 (p ≤ 0.01), 23.28 (p ≤ 0.01), and 32.23 (p ≤ 0.001), respectively. The most significant changes occur in blood of lambs between 1 and 3 months of age. During this period, the total protein, ALT activity, and AST activity levels raise from 63.24 to 69.59 g/L (by 10.04% at p ≤ 0.001), from 239 to 343.5 IE/L (p ≤ 0.001), and from 1324.8 to 1923.5 IE/L (p ≤ 0.05), respectively. In addition, the red blood cell count increases from 11.90 to 13.40 × 10¹² L, while the contents of glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol decrease from 4.88 to 3.54, 0.41 to 0.23, and 2.16 to 1.04 mmol/L, respectively. Sex-age composition and productive performance produce a combined effect on the most analyzed biochemical and common blood test results for sheep.