The metabolic status of goats from Târnava Farm, Sibiu County

Abstract

Târnava farm is located in Sibiu County, 12 km from the town of Mediaș and in 2017 owns 450 goats (740 goats in 2016, 420 in 2015). The farm is based on a reproductive core of different goat breeds: Saanen, French Alpine, Carpathian, cross bred Boer goats, both domestic and acclimated breeds. In establishing the metabolic status of these goats, we took blood samples from 10 2-year-old lactating goats, representing each breed. For each breed we averaged the values obtained and used as reference values the values provided by the equipment manufacturer; the samples were processed in the Laboratory of the Internal Medicine Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Bucharest. From the research we carried out, what we found metabolically in all the goat breeds on the farm was: normal proteic profile and lipid metabolism, normal enzymatic profile except for an increased alkaline phosphatase; hyperbilirubinemia; creatinemia and normal urea levels. As for the alkaline phosphatase – the orthophosphoric-monoester-phosphohydrolase has three isoenzymes: hepatic, bone, intestinal and during gestation, there is also a placental form. The hepatic alkaline phosphatase, which has major implications in veterinary pathology, plays a role in transport at the biliary and sinusoidal poles of the hepatocyte; in our research we observed that the hepato-biliary alkaline phosphatase is increased and accompanied by hyperbilirubinemia. Small non-specific increases may also occur in heart failure, possibly through intrahepatic biliary duct obstruction, all of which are difficult to follow pathological phenomena in veterinary medicine, so we can discuss about hepato-biliary dysfunction in the goats in this farm. The largest increase in alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin was registered in the Saanen breed, more pronounced in males than in females, followed by the French Alpine breed, while in the Carpathian the growth is moderate. We consider that this is a problem of functional adaptation in these imported breeds, one of the aspects observed during our research, constituting a part of a complex metabolic adaptation syndrome of imported goat breeds.