Abstract
The study aimed to evaluate how plasma total proteins, their fractions (i.e. albumin, α1-, β-, γ-globulins) and A/G ratio change in lambs and kids over the first month of life. Ten female Maltese kids and 10 female Comisana lambs were enrolled in the study. Starting from the first day after birth, and for a period of 4 weeks, blood samples were taken from each subject. Specifically, for each kid and lamb, blood sampling was performed within 30 min after birth (T0) (pre-colostral), after colostrum intake (T1), and, weekly, for the subsequent 28 days (T7, T14, T21 and T28). The application of two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures (ANOVA) showed the effect of time in the kids and lambs for the values of plasma total proteins, albumin, α1-, β-, γ-globulins and A/G ratio (p < 0.05). A significant species effect was recorded for α1-and β-globulins (p < 0.05). Specifically, kids showed higher α1-globulins levels at T0, T14, T21 and T28, and higher and β-globulins at T21 and T28 than lambs. The variations found in the levels of plasma total proteins and their fractions in kids and lambs could be related to the physiological changes likely to occur in a newborn animal following transition from the uterine environment to the free-living state. The variability on changes found in α1-and β-globulins measured in kid and lamb seems to suggest that the first one would tend to have a higher acute phase response than lamb stressing the difference between these two small ruminant species.