Clinico-haematological and serum biochemical changes associated with foot and mouth disease in some breeds of cattle in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is considered one of the major hindrances to the growth of animal husbandry in Nigeria, with a projected annual loss of about 7 billion naira. We sought to establish the haematological and biochemical features in Nigerian indigenous cattle naturally infected with Food and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) by comparing the haematological and biochemical features between breeds, sex, and age. Forty cattle showing clinical manifestations and confirmed positive for FMD with the FMD rapid diagnostic kit were sampled for this study. Standard hematological and serum biochemical techniques were adopted for the analysis. There were more clinical FMD cases in the White Fulani breed (50%) compared with Red Bororo (10%), females (60%) compared to males (40%), and adults (60%) compared to young (40%) cattle, respectively. There were no significant differences between males and females in all the biochemical and haematological parameters, except neutrophils and absolute neutrophils which had p-values of 0.022 and 0.003, respectively. There were more cases of FMD in white Fulani, females, and adults than in other breeds, males and young cattle, respectively. Red Bororo breed, female and adult FMD-infected cattle had higher hematological and biochemical parameters compared to other breeds, male and young FMD infected cattle respectively. Generalized neutrophilia, lymphopenia, hypoproteinemia, increased ALT, and decreased AST enzymes were observed when compared with reference values.