Evaluation of serum copper, iron and zinc concentrations in horse and mule of Urmia

Introduction; Evaluation of mineral concentrations in blood (Biricik and Ocal 2005) are assumed as an easy, safe, proper and cheap method to determine the health of animals (Hansen et al 2008). Minerals have vital role in the efficiency of growth, production and reproduction performances. The major duties of Cu and Fe in hematopoiesis and Zn in body tissues health, which means that the health status is directly influenced by the mentioned minerals. Different studies in many aspects of minerals activity and their interrelationships have already been carried out in ruminants though not completely in equines (Radostits et al 2007). Variation and diagnosis of the trace minerals is complex and their blood values are considered as the pathological criteria. Thus, the assessment of the blood mineral concentrations in physiological status assumes the diagnostic criteria in horses of the different geographical areas. The interactions between minerals reveal different aspects on physiological aspects or pathological status (Yousef et al 2012) such as direct correlations between Cu/Fe in hematopoiesis and reverse correlation between Cu/Mo (Blanco et al 2006). Study on the relationships among minerals in horses is not abundant and requires further investigation. The aims are to determine and comparison of the serum mineral concentrations in Urmia equines and mules and finally, the relationships among minerals in equines.
Material and Ten ml blood was collected randomly from 100 horses and mules in 2013. Horses belonged to kurd breed and mules were local indigenous. Sera were separated for mineral analysis. Overall, equines were 78 horses and 22 mules, 43 stallions and 57 mares. Age frequency was 1-6, 7-12 and 13-21 years old (Table 1). Animals were fed forages, dry and wet alfalfa in closed pens or pasture. They did not receive salt, minerals and electrolyte supplementation. Horses were not pregnant, foaled or in lactation period. Serum Cu, Fe and Zn were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry machine using Cu, Fe and Zn in mg/dl. Mean minerals were compared by ANOVA and t-test to determine the species, gender and age variations. Correlations were run to determine the relationships among minerals.
The overall mean serum trace-mineral concentrations were 14.5, 40.2 and 7.48 μg/dl, respectively (Table 2). Serum Cu was normal and consistent with Kavazis et al (2002), but greater than Biricik et al’s (2005) report. The role of Cu in horses is about 7 times less than in cows and important in hematopoiesis and milk yield (Laven et al 2007). Low Cu is responsible cause for anoestrus in mares (Farah et al 2013). Serum Fe concentration in equines was less than that reported by Radostits et al (2007) but higher than Sema et al’s (2010) findings, meaning that Fe deficiency is exists in Urmia equines. The role of Fe in hematopoiesis (Laven et al 2007), health status and milk production is important (Hansen et al 2008). One of the reasons for low Fe in the Urmia equines is perhaps the mineral competition in food and lack of concentrate feeding as mentioned by Farah et al (2013) in pregnant and non pregnant mares. The amount of serum Zn was consistent with Kavazis et al (2002), less than Murase et al (2013) and higher than Massanyi et al’s (2014) findings. No Serum Zn deficiency was expected in Urmia equines. The world findings show low serum Zn in equines which is possibly due to the seasonal variation in Zn food (Biricik and Ocal 2005), mineral competition and lack of concentrate feeding (Norouzi et al 2013). The amounts of minerals in mules were non significantly higher than in horses, which means that species did not affect on mineral values (Murase et al 2013 and Sema et al’s 2010). The age of animals had also no influence on mineral levels but the ages 11 to 14 years old could be critical in trace mineral reduction in horses (Okumura et al’s 1998). Age variations in serum Cu and Fe in Urmia equines was greater than in Zn and indicates that these animals are probably more susceptible to trace mineral deficiency. Trace mineral concentrations vary during the equine diseases. In respiratory disease Fe and Zn reduce but Cu increases, Zn declines following shipping fever, babesiosis and cellulitis (Yousef et al 2012). In babesiosis Fe and Cu increase while in equine herpes virus 1, Cu and Zn reduce and Fe increases (Yörük et al 2007). For this reason serum Zn is assumed as an index in inflammatory diseases in equines (Murase et al 2013). This suggests that during the treatment procedure of diseases Zn supplementation must be considered. None of these disorders were included in the horses and mules of this study. The main advantage of the study was to determine the relationships among minerals and to identify the premier indices existing in the blood of horses which have not been reported before. The interrelationships among minerals in blood, tissues, bones, muscles, urine and CSF require further investigation in horses. The correlations between minerals demonstrate an optimal coordination or contrast among minerals. Similar results have been reported by Bigras and Tremblay (1998) in cows, but not in horses (Massanyi et al 2014). Among minerals, the role of Cu, Fe and Zn are vital in animal survival. The presence of the strong relationship of Zn with Cu and Fe showed that Zn probably be considered as the most important index in equine health (Murase et al 2013).
Trace minerals in Urmia equines were at the normal range, and were not influenced by spices, gender and age parameters, except for serum iron which was low in females and the ages of 14 years old could be considered as probable trace mineral deficiency in horses. The correlations among minerals reveal their close corporations in the equine body. Therefore, Urmia equines did not suffer copper, iron and zinc deficiency, although mares at 14 years old probably susceptible to iron deficit.