Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2018, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy HAF © 2013 Vol. V, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 l The Italian goat autochthonous breeds are appreciated for their milk and characteristics like the rusticity, frugality, fertility and longevity. Therefore the local goat breeds play an important role in the livestock sector, and it is important to guarantee sanitary strategies control, prevention or treatment of diseases. The hematological parameters in goats undergo changes in relation with many factors like breed, age (Piccione G. et al, 2014), physiological status, environment and stress (Waziri M.A. et al, 2010). Based on these differences it is necessary to establish appropriate physiological baseline values for every single breed in order to obtain a realistic evaluation of physiological or pathological status of the animal (Arfuso F. et al, 2016). The aim of this work was to evaluate the differences between a local goat breed (Verzasca) and a cosmopolite one (Alpine) from the hematological point of view, and to establish hematological reference values. A total number of 71 healthy female goats, of Alpine (n=37), and Verzasca (n=34) were enrolled for this study, for a total of 716 blood samples. All animals were reared together and exposed to natural photoperiod. Data were processed by a mixed model-repeated measures ANCOVA in order to evaluate the effects of breed, parity, and season while baseline values for each breed have been calculated by evaluating the 2.5-97.5th percentile of variables distribution. The results showed that the breeds differ in a significant manner (Table 1). Verzasca goat shows significantly higher values in the erythroid parameters, whereas the Alpine goat shows higher mean values of leucocyte count and absolute neutrophil count. A further interesting result is the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio which is 0,96 in the Alpine and 0,57 in the Verzasca. These results can add some knowledge to the definition of the health status of the two breeds, evidencing some environmental and physiological variation mechanisms. Keywords Goat, Alpine, Verzasca, Biodiversity, Hematology. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Giulio Curone giulio.curone@unimi.it JOURNAL HOME PAGE riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf Blood baseline values in female alpine and nera di verzasca goats reared in Italy. G. Curone1,*, A. Gazzonis1, S. Zanzani1, D. Ponzoni1, D. Vigo1, M. T. Manfredi1, F. Riva1, P. Moroni1,2, F.Vitali1, M. Faustini1 1 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell’Università 6, 26900 Lodi, Italy. 2 Cornell University, Animal Health Diagnostic Center, Quality Milk Production Services, 14853 Ithaca, NY, USA. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2018, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy 44 HAF © 2013 Vol. V, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 References Arfuso F., Fazio F., Rizzo M., Marafioti S., Zanghì E., Piccione G., 2016. Factors affecting the haematological parameters in different goat breeds from Italy. Annals of Animal Science. 16, 743-757. Piccione G., Monteverde V., Rizzo M., Vazzana I., Assenza A., Zumbo A., Niutta P.P., 2014. Reference intervals of some electrophoretic and haematological parameters in Italian goats: comparison between Girgentana and Aspromontana breeds. Journal of Applied Animal Research. 42, 434–439. Waziri M.A., Ribadu A.Y., Sivachelvan N., 2010. Changes in the serum proteins, hematological and some serum biochemical profiles in the gestation period in the Sahel goats. Veterinarski Arhiv 80, 215-224. Table 1: Hematological parameters in the two breeds of goats. SD-standard deviation; † p<0.001 difference between breeds. Slopes and their statistical significances as a function of time in years are reported, as well as random factor significances. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001. Alpine Verzasca Age effect, slope Subject effect Variable Mean SD Mean SD Alpine Verzasca P<0.05 RBC (M/µl) 12.95† 1.85 14.37 1.35 -0.080 -0.320*** HGB (g/L) 86.60† 13.10 96.60 9.70 -0.400 -2.500*** PCV (%) 0.25† 0.03 0.27 0.03 0.001 -0.005*** MCV (fl) 19.72† 1.96 19.08 1.76 0.173** 0.129** MCH (pg) 6.70 0.53 6.74 0.46 0.044** -0.026* MCHC (g/dl) 34.20† 3.19 35.51 3.09 -0.062 -0.359*** RDW (%) 32.76† 4.80 34.91 4.27 -0.357** -0.757*** WBC (106/L) 8.60† 3.15 5.95 2.25 -0.365*** -0.491*** NEU (106/L) 3.26† 2.07 1.80 1.11 -0.020 -0.061* LYMPH (106/L) 4.59 2.24 3.66 1.73 -0.327*** -0.399*** MONO (106/L) 0.47 0.44 0.28 0.19 -0.031** -0.012** EOS (106/L) 0.24 0.22 0.17 0.17 0.014* -0.021*** BAS (106/L) 0.08 0.06 0.05 0.04 -0.001 -0.001 NEU (fraction) 0.37 0.15 0.30 0.12 0.015*** 0.016*** LYMPH (fraction) 0.53 0.17 0.61 0.13 -0.019*** -0.017*** MONO (fraction) 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.04 -0.003 0.002 EOS (fraction) 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.003*** -0.002 BAS (fraction) 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.005* N/L 0.96 1.63 0.57 0.38 0.053** 0.051*** http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en