Effect of cold and hot seasons on thermoregulation and hemogram blood parameters of dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Algeria

Brahim Hamad¹, Hebib Aggad, Leyla Hadef¹ and Aicha Adaika²

University of Tiaret, Institute of Veterinary Sciences, Laboratory of Hygiene and Animal Pathology, P O Box 78 Tiaret, 14000 Tiaret, Algeria
brahim.hamad@yahoo.fr
¹ University of El-Oued, Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences, Department of Agronomy, P O Box 789 El-Oued, 39000 El-Oued, Algeria
² University of El-Oued, Laboratory of Valorization and Technology of Sahara Resources (VTRS) , P O Box 789 El-Oued, 39000 El-Oued, Algeria

Abstract

The current study was aimed to investigate the effect of cold and hot season on some thermoregulation and haematological parameters of dromedary camel in Algeria. A total number of twenty four camels aged between 5-7 years were included in this study. For this purpose, the rectal temperature was recorded using an electronic thermometer, heart rate was determined by auscultation of the heart area with a stethoscope, and the respiratory rate was determined by counting of the respiratory movements of flank area. So, haematological analysis were performed with an automatic hematological analyzer.

The results revealed that the rectal temperature was increased during hot as compared to cold seasons. However, heart and respiratory rate didn’t change with seasonal variations. There were seasonal variations in the total RBC count, haemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) snd mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC). However, no effect of season was found in packed cell volume (PCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), total white blood cells counts and differential leukocyte count. Red blood cells counts, haemoglobin concentration and MCHC were  higher during cold as compared to hot season. MCV was lower during cold than hot season. In conclusion, these results revealed that, the environmental conditions had an effect on some thermoregulation and hematological parameters of the dromedary camel.

Key words: haemoglobin, heart rate, mean corpuscular volume, packed cell volume, rectal temperature, respiratory rate

Introduction

The camel is multipurpose livestock species of great economic importance due to the benefits provided by camel products such as meat, milk and wool (Al jassim and Sejian 2015). On the other hand, the camel is well suited to the harsh environments characterized by scarcity of water and vegetation as well as high ambient temperature and rough terrain. This is because the camel is uniquely anatomically and physiologically equipped for living under such environments (Eltahir et al 2010).

So, heat tolerance and adaptation capacity to hot environments have been evaluated using physiological parameters including respiration, heart rate, body and skin temperatures (Abdoun et al 2012). On the other hand, these parametres have been used as reliable indicators of environmental pressure in camels (Mohammed et al 2007).

Moreover, changes in the environmental factors are found to exert a pronounced effect on the blood characteristics to maintain the animal’s health and help survive the adverse effects (Al-Arfaj et al 1992).

For that, hematological changes have an important role in adjusting the different functions of the animal's body to existing environmental conditions especially under stressful ones (Nazifi et al 1999). For this reason, the study of blood constituents is important for evaluating the health status of camel (Al-Haj 2013; Momenah 2014) and for evaluating the effects of various environmental changes on the physiological status of populations of camels in the wild (Asadi et al 2009).

Far few studies have been undertaken to elucidate the effect of environmental conditions on thermal and haematological parameters of camels. So, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cold and hot season on some thermal and haematological parameters of camels in Algeria.

Materials and methods

Study area

This study was conducted at El Oued municipality slaughterhouse in the South East of Algeria, during the period from January, 2015 to September, 2015. This region is characterized by an climate desert Saharan type, in cold season the temperature drops below 17 °C while in hot season it reaches 34 °C (Table 1); average rainfall varies between 80 and 100 mm/year (period from October to February).

Animals

Twenty-four clinically healthy male camels (Camelus dromedaries) of Sahraoui population, aged between 5 to 7 years were used in this study. The animals were kept under similar conditions of diet and management practices, these camels were fed with some barley concentrate and dry hay straw. The animals were exposed to the same pre-slaughter handling and transportation processes (walking for 2 km) and subsequently held in a lairage for 10-12 hours. Twelve camels were sampled at each season cold and hot.

Sampling and measurements

Metrological and physiological parameters

Ambient, rectal temperature, respiration rate and pulse rate were measured during cold and hot season of the year. Ambient temperature was recorded using commercial thermometer. Rectal temperature was obtained gently by inserting the clinical thermometer in the rectum for two minutes. Respiration rate was determined by counting the frequency of flank movement per one minute. Pulse rate was determined by auscultation of the heart area with a stethoscope.

Hematological parameters

Blood samples (5 ml) were collected from the jugular vein of each animal using 10 ml sterile plastic syringes. The samples were collected in tubes coated with EDTA as anticoagulant. The samples were placed immediately on ice and transferred to laboratory. Red blood cells (RBCs), haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), White blood cells (WBCs), and differential leukocyte count were determined using automatic hematological analyzer (Orphèe Mythic 18, Switzerland).

Statistical analysis

Data were statistically analyzed by using the Statistical software program (SPPS, version 16). All data were presented as means ± standard deviation. Statistical means were compared using the independent-samples T test or Mann-Whitney U test after evaluating of normal distribution. The overall level for statistical significance was set at P<0.05.

Results

The results of mean values of the thermoregulation parameters are shown in Table 2. The rectal temperature increased significantly (p<0.05) during hot season. However, the mean values of pulse and respiratory rates did not vary significantly (P>0.05) with season.

Table 3. shows the effect of cold and hot seasons on erythrocytes indices of camels. The total RBCs count, haemoglobin concentration (Hb), and MCHC were decreased during hot season, while MCV was increased. However, packed cell volume (PCV) and MCH didn’t show any difference  between cold and hot season.

The effect of cold and hot seasons on leukocytic profile are given in Table 4. No seasonal effect was revealed in any of these parameters.

Discussion

In the present study, the rectal temperature increased during hot season. This result is similar to the findings of Abdalla et al (2011) and Abdoun et al (2012), who concluded that the season had a significant effect on rectal temperature of camels. Similar trends were reported by Al-Haidary et al (2013), Hozifa et al (2016a) and Hozifa et al (2016b) in the female dromedary camels.

The increase in rectal temperature during the hot summer conditions may be due to minimised temperature gradient between the body and the environment that resulted in reduced body heat gain (Abdel-Samee and Marai 1997), this could be minimized the heat-stress on the camels. The overall mean of rectal temperature found in present study agrees with that reported by Mohammed et al (2007) and Elnahas (2008).

However, the mean values of pulse rates did not vary with season. This result is in agreement with those of Abdel-Samee and Marai (1997). However, this finding disagrees with Mohammed et al (2007), who reported that the pulse rate was increased during the dry hot season, while Abdalla et al (2011) showed that, the pulse rate was increased during the humid hot season. Similar findings were observed by Zeidan et al (2008), El-Harairy et al (2010), Hozifa et al (2016a) and Hozifa et al (2016b), who found that season had a significant effect on pulse rate of the dromedary she-camels. The overall mean values of pulse rate observed in this study are in agreement with ranges mentioned by Tefera (2004) and Elnahas (2008).

Also, no effect of season was found in respiratory rate. This trend is in agreement with those of Hozifa et al (2016a) in the dromedary she-camels. However, this finding disagrees with those reported by Abdel-Samee and Marai (1997), Mohammed et al (2007) and Abdalla et al (2011), who noted that the season had a significant effect on respiratory rate of the dromedary camel. The mean value of respiratory rate reported in our study is within the ranges reported by Tefera (2004), Mohammed et al (2007) and Elnahas (2008). The results obtained in this study for pulse and respiratory might be due to adaptative physiology of camels to the environmental conditions. These results suggest the greater ability of camels to adapt to heat environment.

In this study, the increase of total red blood cell count RBC, haemoglobin concentration (Hb) and MCH during cold season compared with hot season may be due to nutritional conditions of camels which it were improved during cold season. The finding of the total red blood cells count RBC obtained in this study agrees with those reported by Badawy et al (2008) in the dromedary she-camels. Contradicting results were found among different researchers with regard to the effect of the season on RBCs of camels. Amin et al (2007), Abdalla et al (2011) and Aichouni et al (2011) registered an increased RBC count during the dry hot season, while Salman and Afzal (2004), Al-Harbi (2012) and Bargaâ et al (2016) did not found any seasonal variation on RBC. The overall mean of RBC count observed in this study was similar to the previous studies of Bogin (2000), Aichouni et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011).

The present study showed that the concentration of haemoglobin (Hb) was lower during hot than cold season. This is in disagreement with the results described by Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011), Al- Harbi (2012), Babeker et al (2013) and Hozifa et al (2016a), who noted that there was no effect of season in haemoglobin concentration. Similarly, the result of the current study disagrees with El-Harairy et al (2010), who reported that the Hb mean value was higher during hot than cold season in the dromedary she-camels. Hb concentration in this study followed the same trend reported for RBC count; this finding may be attributed to the hemodilution phase resulting from increasing water intake during summer season, where a considerable part is retained particularly in the extracellular compartment. The overall mean of Hb concentration in this study was in line with the ranges recorded by Bogin (2000), Al-Busadah (2007) and Farooq et al (2011).

There was no difference in the mean values of the PCV obtained in our study. This result support the findings of Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011), Al- Harbi (2012) and Bagraâ et al (2016), who reported that season had no effect on PCV values. In contrast, this trend disagrees with Zeidan and Abbas (2004) and Abdalla et al (2011), who showed a decrease on packed cell volume during cold breeding season, while El-Harairy et al (2010) found shigher PCV values during hot than during cold season. In this result, the overall mean of PCV count was within the ranges of the previous reports of Aichouni et al (2010), Hussein et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011).

The mean value of MCV during hot season was increased compared with values obtained in cold season; this increase might be due to negative correlation between MCV and RBCs count which was decreased in hot season. The result of this study was not in agreement with the results obtained by Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011) and Babeker et al (2013), who reported that MCV was decreased during hot dry season, while Salman and Afzal (2004) and Badawy et al (2008) found that MCV was lower in cold than in hot season. Similarly, Al- Harbi (2012) reported that the MCV did not vary between cold and hot season. The mean value of MCV obtained in this work is in coincidence with those reported by Al-Busadah (2007), Aichouni et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011).

The mean value of MCHC during cold season was higher than the values obtained for hot season. This finding was in agreement with those reported by Abdul-Rahaman et al (2015) in the dromedary she-camels, but disagreed with the findings described by Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011) and Al- Harbi (2012), who found that there was no seasonal effect in the mean values of the MCHC. So, our result was in disagreement with those reported by Babeker et al (2013), who mentioned that MCHC was increased during hot season and with Hozifa et al (2016a) and Hozifa et al (2016b), who obtained a increase on MCHC in autumn as compared to winter or summer season. So, the variation in MCHC could be due to the inconcomitant increase or decrease in Hb concentration and PCV values. In current study, the overall mean of MCHC was within the ranges reported by Bogin (2000), Al-Busadah (2007), Aichouni et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011).

Our results suggest that there was no seasonal variation on MCH; this finding might be due to the steady state of both the erythrocytes count and haemoglobin concentration throughout the different seasons. This result is in accordance with that reported by Al- Harbi (2012) in the male dromedary camels. Similar trend was reported by Al-Haidary (2006), Badawy et al (2008) and Hozifa et a (2016a), who found that there was no seasonal effect in MCH among the different seasons (summer, autumn and winter) in the dromedary she-camels. However, this finding was in disagreement with the results observed by Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011) and Abdul-Rahaman et al (2015), who reported a seasonal effect on MCH mean value. The result of the overall mean of MCH was in the line with the ranges reported by Farooq et al (2011). In contarast, this mean was lower than that reported in other studies (Bogin 2000; Aichouni et al 2010).

The variation in various erythrocytes indices may be attributed to differences in RBC size, its oxygen carrying capacity in connection with age and physiologic state. The difference might be due to the differences in technique applied for their measurements (Aichouni et al 2010; Farooq et al 2011).

İn current study no seasonal effect was revealed in any parameters of leukocytic indices;  this result was in accordance with those reported by Salman and Afzal (2004), Aichouni et al (2011) and Al- Harbi (2012). This result may be due to health status of camels included in this study, when it were clinically healthy. According to Osman et al (2015), the leukocytes usually increase following exposure to infection. Contradicting results were found among different researchers with regard to the effect of the season on WBCs count Abdalla et al (2011), Bagraâ et al (2016) noted an increase on WBCs count during cold season, while Babeker et al (2013) found that WBCs increased during the dry hot season. The overall mean of the total white blood cell count WBCs in this study was in accordance with the findings reported by Al-Busadah (2007), Aichouni et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011), but it was higher than that found by Bogin (2000).

Similarly, there was no seasonal effect in lymphocytes, monocytes and granylocytes in this study, which supports the findings of Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011), Al- Harbi (2012) and Bagraâ et al (2016) for monocytes. However, the finding of this study for lymphocytes was in good agreement with those observed by Al- Harbi (2012) and Abdul-Rahaman et al (2015), but disagreed with those recorded by Amin et al (2007), Aichouni et al (2011) and Bagraâ et al (2016), who reported that the lymphocytes were increased during hot season.

Bagraâ et al (2016), found higher neutrophile and lower eosinophile percentage during cold season, while the same authors reported that the basophile didn’t show seasonal variations. On the other hand, Aichouni et al (2011), reported that the neutrophile decreased during hot season while the basophile increased. The differential white blood cell percentages obtained in our study were similar to those mentioned by Aichouni et al (2010) and Farooq et al (2011) for granylocytes but it was higher than the values reported by these same author’s for monocytes.

Conclusions

The results of the current study may contribute to the overall knowledge about the effect of environmental conditions on thermoregulation and hemogram blood parameters of dromedary camel in Algeria. It was shown that:

• The environmental conditions such as high or low ambient temperature had an effect on some thermoregulation and hemogram parameters of the camels.
  
  
• The rectal temperature, RBCs count, Hb concentration, MCV and MCHC were affected by the environmental conditions.
  
  
• There was no effect on pulse, respiratory rate, packed cells volume, MCH, WBCs and differential leukocyte count.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff of El Oued municipality slaughterhouse especially the veterinary inspectors Dr. Abdelghani Beddada and Dr. Abdelatif Miloudi for the help to carry out this research. We also thank Mr. Khalifa Hamad for assisting in blood samples collection. Grateful is expressed to the staff of the Laboratory of Hygiene and Animal Pathology, at the Institute of Veterinary Sciences, University of Tiaret. Algeria.

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Received 4 April 2017; Accepted 4 May 2017; Published 2 July 2017

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