Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Animal
Nutrition; 1Livestock Production and Management Section,
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar 243 122, India
Abstract
Eighteen indigenous female goats
of 7-8 months of age with average BW
9.8±1.04 kg (mean±SE) were randomly distributed into three equal groups (CON,
LET and HET). Bacterial endotoxin (Escherichiacoli O55:B5) was injected
intravenously to treatment group animals at low (LET; 0.2µg/kg BW) and high
(HET; 0.4µg/kg BW) doses while the animals of control (CON) group were
administered an equivalent volume of normal saline. Heart rate, rectal
temperature, feed and water intake and behavioral changes were studied as the
main indicators of the response together with selected blood metabolites. Both
the endotoxin treated-groups showed almost similar response of depression and
lethargy followed by biphasic shivering, increased (P<0.05) rectal temperature with decrease activity, feed (P=0.054)
and water (P<0.05) consumption.
No significant differences were observed in studied behavioral, heart rate,
hematological (Hb and Hct), serum protein and activity of ALT. Plasma glucose
level, on the other hand, was reduced at 3h post-injection in both LET and HET
as compared to CON. The serum activity of AST exhibited a significant (P<0.05) increase in HET group as compared to LET or CON. Low
doses of endotoxin (~0.4 µg/kg BW) in goats mimic low concentration of
circulating bacterial endotoxin, which could be ascertained from the associated
behavioral and febrile responses along with changes in selected blood
metabolites.