Acute-phase proteins and oxidative stress biomarkers in water buffalo calves subjected to transportation stress

The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of the transportation stress on water buffalo calves. A total of 50 buffalo calves (8?±?1 months old, 165?±?13 kg) were assigned to one of two equal groups; the first group represented clinically healthy non-transported calves (control non-transported group; n?=?25) whereas calves of the second group were subjected to transportation (transported group; n?=?25). Blood samples were collected from control non-transported calves and from transported calves immediately after unloading (post-transportation). The present findings indicated that the examined hematological and biochemical parameters were not significantly (P?≤?0.05) changed in transported calves when compared with the control non-transported group. Furthermore, serum concentration of the investigated acute-phase proteins (APP) namely, haptoglobin (0.37?±?0.01), serum amyloid A (75.43?±?2.11), and fibrinogen (7.51?±?0.25) were significantly (P?≤?0.05) higher in transported calves when compared with control calves (0.1?±?0.01 g/l, 23.9?±?0.56 mg/l, and 4.2?±?0.16 g/l), respectively. Lipid peroxidation represented as malonaldhyde (56.78?±?3.42) was higher significantly (P?≤?0.05), whereas antioxidant biomarkers in the form of nitric oxide (17.68?±?0.89) levels, and activities of superoxide dismutase (7.37?±?0.53) and reduced glutathione (5.25?±?0.95) were lower significantly (P?≤?0.05) in the serum of transported calves when all were compared with the control group (24.68?±?0.19 nmol/g Hb, 21.80?±?0.24 mmol/ml, 9.24?±?0.1 U/g Hb, and 7.23?±?0.21 mmol/l), respectively. Conclusively, the present study demonstrated that transportation were significantly enough to trigger changes in APP and oxidative stress biomarkers in buffalo calves.