Evaluation of cardiac injury biomarkers in sheep with acute lactic acidosis

Rumen lactic acidosis is a metabolic disorder which develops in ruminants that have ingested large amounts of unaccustomed feeds rich in ruminally fermentable carbohydrates. In this study we investigated the relationship between serum lactate levels and ruminal fluid pH with changes of cardiac damage biomarkers in serum in 200 sheep with acute ruminal lactic acidosis (ARLA) and 50 healthy ones. After confirmation of ARLA through clinical examination and ruminal fluid pH£5.5, venous blood samples were collected and special analysis carried out on serum samples. According to the findings ruminal fluid pH in diseased and healthy sheep were 5.28 ± 0.2 and 6.93±0.3, respectively. Serum lactate level in sheep with ARLA was significantly higher than normal sheep. (p=0.000). cTnI levels was 0.684±0.03 ng/ml in sheep with ARLA, which was significantly (p=0.000) higher than healthy sheep (0.005±0.00 ng/ml). Other cardiac biomarkers were increased in diseased group, however only elevation of serum activities of AST and CK-MB were statistically significant (p=0.002 and p=0.007 respectively). Although serum LDH activity in diseased group was higher than control group; but this difference was statistically non-significant (p=0.063). There was significant negative correlation between ruminal fluid pH with cTnI concentrations (p=0.004; r=–0.850); so that highest levels of cTnI (2.28 to 3.06 ng/ml) were recorded in three sheep with ruminal fluid pH