Effect Of Exogenous Progesterone On Blood Chemistry Of Large White Pigs

Abstract

Exogenous hormones are major economic factors in swine production. This study evaluate the effects of exogenous administration of progesterone on the blood chemistry of pigs.Experiment involved weekly injections of progesterone to 24 pigs (12 males and 12 females)from day old to 24 weeks and only corn oil to another 24pigs (12 males and 12 females) also for the same duration. Hormone administration was by intramuscular injections. Serum samples were collected at specific intervals and analysed for total protein (TP) which was determined using the Biuret method. Cholesterol level (CL) was determined by enzymatic end point and aspartate amino transferase (AST) determined by Kinetic method were read in a spectrophotometer. Blood samples were also collected at the same interval for haematological analyses (Packed Cell Volume-PCV; Haemoglobin-Hb; Red Blood Cell count-RBC; White Blood Cell count-
WBC; while Mean Corpuscular Volume-MCV, Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin-MCH, and Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration-MCHC were derived). All analyses were done according to standard methods and procedures. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance. Results show that sex effect was significant at 5 weeks for PCV, Hb, RBC, WBC, MCV, MCH and MCHC. Males had
lower values for values for all haematological parameters except for WBC. There was no sex effect observed for serum chemistry at the periods of sampling. TP and AST values of 7.7 g/dl and 22.7i. u/l were higher compared to 6.8 g/dl and 21.0i. u/l for the control respectively. Meanwhile CL was higher in control animals than in progesterone injected groups. The result of this present study, suggests that progesterone can be useful in pig production without compromising the health status of the pigs and end users of their meat.