Changes of internal environment indicators of aberdeen angus heifers during rearing

Abstract

In the period from birth to weaning we sampled blood from 22 Aberdeen Angus heifers bred in the system of suckling cows at regular intervals to evaluate changes in the indicators of the internal environment. In the plasma we analysed the concentrations of total protein, albumin, urea, glucose, total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, alkaline phosphatase, alaninaminotransferase, aspartataminotransferase, tyroxine, triiodothyronine. We found that age had a significant effect (P < 0.01) on the concentration of total proteins, albumin and urea (r = 0.69; 0.49 and 0.48, respectively). A significant (P < 0.001) decreasing trend in the catalytic ALP activity was detected in the course of the experiment (r = -0.65) as opposed to the ALT and AST activities (r = 0.39 and 0.35, respectively; P < 0.01). Age was seen to have a significant effect on the T3 concentration (r = -0.63; P < 0.01). A positive correlation was found between the temperature, cholesterol concentration and activity of alkaline phosphatase (r = 0.33 and 0.44; P < 0.01). Correlation between the environmental temperature and content of total proteins, tyroxine and AST activity was negative (r = -0.66; -0.42 and -0.35; p < 0.01). Correlation analyses revealed no significant effect of the growth intensity on changes in the indicators of the internal environment of the animals.