Hematology Profile of Female Guinea Pig ( Cavia porcellus (Linnaeus, 1758)) with Diet Variations

Abstract

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus (Linnaeus, 1758)) is a rodent other than rats and mice that are commonly used in biomedical research because of its physiological similarity to humans. To meet the requirement as a standard laboratory animal, the care management of GP needs to be controlled, one of which is by diet. The standard diet for GP is still limited in Indonesia, therefore GP is fed with a rabbit diet. According to references, inappropriate diet affects hematology profile. This research will be carried out to compare hematology profiles in GP fed with standard and nonstandard diets. Nine female GP were assigned into three groups, given a variety of diets based on the research design: Group BV (NS-NS-S), BVL (NS-S-S), and BL (S-S-S). The research lasted for 84 days, and blood was collected every 28 days. Hematology data profiled using fully automatic hematology analyzer Sysmex XP-100 with the following parameters: RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, WBC, %LYM, %NEU, %MXD, #LYM, #NEU, #MXD, N/L, PLT, PDW, MPV, P-LCR dan PCT. Cell morphology was observed through smear slide, stained by Giemsa 3%. There were significant (p<0,05) decrease in RBC, HGB, HCT, and MCHC. There were also significant (p<0,05) increases in MCV value, WBC, NEUT#, PLT, and PCT. The significant changes especially happen in the BL group. Based on the result, it can be concluded that the diet alteration to the standard diet changes the value of RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCHC, WBC, NEUT#, PLT, MPV, and PCT. However, the change was ranging in the normal value, so the nonstandard diet was still safe to be given with vegetable supplementary every day.