Clinical and paraclinical effects of transportation on miniature and domestic donkeys

Abstract

Transportation of live animals is an inevitable husbandry practice and has been identified as one of the main causes of stress. Miniature donkeys, because of their rarity and entertainment value, occupy a unique place among all domesticated animals in some countries. We hypothesized that transportation stress would produce changes in clinical and biochemical parameters of domestic and miniature donkeys (Equus africanus asinus). Ten clinically healthy donkeys were selected for this study. The overall study population was almost equally subdivided into six subgroups according to the breed (domestics and miniatures), sex (males and non-pregnant non-lactating females) and age (foals and adults). Donkeys up to 2 years of age and over 3 years old were called foals and adults, respectively. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and rectal temperature (RT) were measured before and after transport. Serum concentrations of chloride (Cl⁻), calcium (Ca²⁺), sodium (Na⁺), potassium (K⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺) and phosphorus (P⁻) were measured. Following the transportation, serum concentrations of Ca²⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺ were significantly reduced in all the donkeys (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in P⁻, Cl⁻ and Mg²⁺ levels before and after transportation. There were significant decreases in serum concentrations of Ca²⁺ and K⁺ in domestic, female and adult subgroups and in Na⁺ levels in male and foal subgroups. According to the results of this study, transportation generally affects the physiological and biochemical status of domestic and miniature donkeys, regardless of interspecies differences. However, more studies are required to differentiate between the effects of transportation and effects of food and water deprivation during transport.

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