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Vol. 52, 2013
Biochemical and hematological profiles of a wild population
of the nose-horned viper Vipera
ammodytes (Serpentes:
Viperidae) during autumn, with a morphological assessment of blood cells
Duje
Lisičić*, Domagoj Đikić, Vesna Benković, Anica Horvat Knežević, Nada
Oršolić and Zoran Tadić
1Department
of Animal Physiology, Division of Biology, Faculty of Science,
University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb HR-10 000, Croatia
Abstract
Background: Hematological and
biochemical analyses of blood can be of great importance for studying
the biology of species and determining the health status of animals in
both the wild and captivity. In order to determine baseline ranges for
the nose-horned viper Vipera ammodytes, we determined the blood
cell morphology and measured 20 hematological and 5 biochemical
variables from the blood samples taken from 31 (17 males and 14
females) healthy specimens of nose-horned viper caught in the wild at
the beginning of autumn.
Results: Most of the measured parameters and blood
cell morphology were similar to those reported for other reptile
species. The males showed a significantly higher eosinophil count and
higher mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) and MCH concentration values, while
the females had a significantly higher mature erythrocyte count. The
erythrocyte differential counts showed balanced hematopoiesis in this
part of the annual cycle.
Conclusions: We suggest that these
results can be used as a baseline for determining hematological values
and blood cell morphology for V. ammodytes, as well as in further
studies including monitoring and determination of the health status of
this species, especially of animals kept in captivity for antiserum
production. This is the most complete report regarding hematological
parameters of this endangered snake species.
Key words: Blood cells; Hematology; Blood
biochemistry; Reptile; Vipera
ammodytes; Snake.
*Correspondence: E-mail: dujelisicic@gmail.com
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