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 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 hematological and biochemical features in Nigerian indigenous cattle naturally infected with FMDV by comparing the hematological and biochemical features with breed, 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. Demography findings revealed more clinical FMD cases in the White Fulani breed (50%) compared to the least in Red Bororo (10%), females (60%) compared to males (40%), and adults (60%) compared to young (40%) cattle, respectively. There were generalized neutrophilia, lymphopenia, hypoproteinemia, increased ALT, and decreased AST enzymes when compared with reference ranges. All parameters analyzed regarding sex revealed no significance in their mean ± standard deviation, except neutrophils and absolute neutrophils, with p-values of 0.022 and 0.003, respectively. The results of all parameters regarding ages showed no statistical significance when comparisons of their mean ± SD were analyzed. We therefore conclude that there were more incidences of FMD in white Fulani, female, and adult cattle compared to other breeds, male and young animals, respectively, in Nigeria. The hematological and biochemical features appeared better in the Red Bororo breed, female and adult FMD-infected cattle compared to other breeds, male and young FMD-infected cattle respectively.