The effects of "holding" on some blood parameters in goats

One young male and five female goats aged from four months to mature fullmouthed were handled by stroking and raising the jugular vein intermittently for one minute each day for four days. A control group was kept in a similar pen out of sight of the test group for the four days and approached only when attended for pen cleaning and feeding. On the fifth day, heparinised blood samples were taken once hourly for a period of three hours by jugular venepuncture from both groups. After processing, the samples were examined for packed cell volumes, plasma and erythrocyte potassium and sodium concentrations. Analysis of variance of the data showed a significant (