Effect of sex and season on serum biochemical constituents and enzymes of Panthera leo of Nandankanan Zoological Park

Abstract

The study aims to generate blood biochemical reference data as required for diseases diagnosis of lions (Panthera leo). The project was conducted in three regimens of effect of season on male, female and both the sex to determine the variations. Experimental lions of control (12 numbers) and test (6 numbers) groups were selected randomly in the population. Female lions in winter season depicted significantly (p<0.01) higher activity of ALP and lower levels (p<0.001) of glucose and protein but, in summer season they exhibited significantly higher (p<0.05) levels of urea. The comparative study in both the sexes and seasons revealed that, female lions had significantly higher blood glucose (29.06%) in summer and significantly lower levels of protein (10.98%) and urea (10.34%) in winter season. In case of ALP study, it was significantly higher in both male (61.09%) and female (102.37%) in winter season. The study concludes that, glucose, protein, urea, and ALP varied significantly with sex and season and must be taken into consideration during interpretation of clinical findings for disease diagnosis.