Hematology and serum biochemistry of free-range brown-throated sloths in two urban areas in Brazil

Vet World Vol.13 September-2020 Article-40

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(9): 2033-2038

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.2033-2038

Kissia Ferreira Pereira¹, Ita de Oliveira e Silva^1,2, Fernanda de Fátima Rodrigues Silva¹, Vinicius Herold Dornelas e Silva¹, Carla Soraia Soares de Castro³, and Vanner Boere^1,2

1. Postgraduation Program at Animal Biology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
2. Institute of Humanities, Arts and Sciences of the Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Campus Jorge Amado, Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil.
3. Postgraduation Program at Ecology and Environmental Monitoring, Department of Engineering and Environment, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Rio Tinto, Paraíba, Brazil.

Background and Aim: The brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus) is widely distributed in three biomes: The Amazon, Atlantic Forest, and Caatinga. Some subpopulations are isolated in urban areas in Brazil, usually in squares and small woods. Due to the scarcity of reference values, an investigation was carried out on the hematology and blood biochemistry of brown-throated sloths from urban areas.

Materials and Methods: Blood was collected by venipuncture in the femoral vein from 19 brown-throated sloths for hematological and biochemical analyses, living in two municipalities; Teófilo Otoni (TO) (Minas Gerais State) and Rio Tinto (RT) (Paraíba state), in the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil. The samples were analyzed in specialized veterinary laboratories using automatic cell counters and slide fixation staining methods.

Results: The two subpopulations of brown-throated sloths had no significant differences in most hematological values, with the exception of a higher leukocyte concentration (p<0.01) in the RT sub-population. The difference in leukocyte concentration suggests an idiosyncratic effect, as the animals were healthy and the stress of the capture was acute, not chronic. The concentrations of urea, creatinine, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were similar (p<0.05) in brown-throated sloths from TO and RT. Likewise, the liver enzyme concentrations (ALP, alanine transaminase [ALT], and aspartate transaminase [AST]) did not differ between the two subpopulations (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Compared to another study, brown-throated sloths from TO and RT have higher plasma concentrations of ALT and ALP, suggestive of a hepatic overload. Hematological and blood biochemical findings of TO and RT can be used as clinical reference values for brown-throated sloths living in an urban environment. Keywords: order pilosa, physiology, public square, urban fauna, wildlife.

Keywords: order pilosa, physiology, public square, urban fauna, wildlife.

How to cite this article: Pereira KF, Silva IO, Silva FFR, Silva VHD, Castro CSS, Boere V (2020) Hematology and serum biochemistry of free-range brown-throated sloths in two urban areas in Brazil, Veterinary World, 13(9): 2033-2038.

Received: 08-05-2020 Accepted: 10-08-2020 Published online: 30-09-2020

Corresponding author: Vanner Boere E-mail: vannerboere@uol.com.br

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2033-2038

Copyright: Pereira, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.