Comparative study of some biochemical and physiological profile among Nigerian sheep

Physiological and biochemical data of the four breeds of sheep were collected from Bauchi, Kastina, Nasarawa and Anambra States for Balami, Uda, Yankasa and West Africa Dwarf sheep, respectively using a multi-stage sampling method. A total of 46 Balami (18 males and 28 females), 30 Uda (5males and 25 females), 36 Yankasa (9 males and 27 females) and 37 WAD (7 males and 30 females) were sampled. Sampling was done from the selected States based on distance from one another and an abundance of sheep. Data were collected during the hottest season of November to March. Blood samples were collected from 60 adult sheep out of the entire population for the study. Blood samples were collected from jugular vein puncture using a 5ml syringe, and the samples were then transferred into well-labelled ethylene diamine tetra acetate (EDTA) bottles. Data collected for the study were analyzed using the General Linear Model Procedure of SAS using the fixed-effect model that incorporated breed, sex and age of the sheep. The pulse rate of adult Balami sheep was higher than what was obtained from the other three breeds (P<0.01). The pulse rate for Balami sheep was 94.33±6.50 beats per minute as against those of WAD, Uda and Yakasa (77.42±8.38, 76.85±8.38 and 72.80±7.84 beats per minute, respectively). Adult WAD, Yankasa and Balami had similar (p>0.05) respiratory rate (73.92±8.73, 71.20±7.73, 69.33±6.40 breath per minute, respectively). The values for the three breeds were higher than 67.76±8.16 breath per minute obtained for Uda sheep. The rectal temperature of adult Balami (39.29±0.21oC) and Yankasa (39.21±0.25oC) were similar but differed from the values obtained for adult WAD sheep (38.40±0.29oC). Malondialdehyde (MDA) is not a good marker for monitoring heat stress among breeds of sheep in Nigeria because breeds did affect (p>0.05) the activity level of MDA. Metabolic markers like thyroid, cortisol hormones level and glucose could also be used in the future. Pulse rate had a high and positive correlation (0.452; P<0.01) with an atmospheric temperature of Balami sheep. Moderate and positive correlations (0.265, 0.221; P<0.05) were obtained between pulse rate and temperature of Uda sheep and WAD, respectively. Molecular markers of biochemical and heat stress such as like heat shock protein (HSP) should be used to study the diversity of sheep breeds in Nigeria. Keywords: Biochemical, Nigeria, physiological profile, sheep, heat stress