Detection of serum amyloid-A concentration in the calf clinically diagnosed with pneumonia, enteritis and pneumoenteritis

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to determine serum amyloid-A (SAA) concentration in the cases of pneumonia, pneumoenteritis, and enteritis which are frequently encountered in calves in veterinary medicine. Although a great deal of experimental studies has been conducted in this field, studies on naturally infected calves are quite few. Eighty calves at the age of 0-6 months were used in the study and the calves were divided into four groups. Due to the clinical examination, the calves diagnosed with pneumonia (Group P; n=20), with pneumoenteritis (Group PE; n=20) and with enteritis (Group E; n=20) formed the disease group as the healthy ones formed the control (Group C; n=20) group. After the body temperatures of all calves were taken, blood samples were obtained from Jugular vein for haematological and biochemical measurements. As haematological, white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb) and hematocrit (Hct) measurements were performed in Veterinary Hematology Analyzer. Serum amyloid-A (SAA), interleukin 1 (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) concentration measurements were carried out with ELISA reader by using commercial kits. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (T. Bil), total protein (TP), gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration measurements were conducted in autoanalyzer by using commercial kits. In all disease groups (P, PE, and E) body temperature, haematologic parameters (WBC, RBC, Hb and Hct), serum biochemical parameters (AST, ALT, ALB, T. Bil, TP, GGT and BUN), SAA concentration and serum concentrations of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) were determined to be higher in comparison to the control group (P<0.005). According to these findings, routine measurement of serum SAA concentration in veterinary medicine is considered to be beneficial in determining the severity of the disease, in selecting the proper treatment, in monitoring the applied treatment, and detecting subclinical diseases. In the light of these findings we acknowledge that routine measurements of serum SAA concentration from the moment the calves are diagnosed with pneumonia, enteritis and pneumoenteritis in veterinary medicine until the actual cause is determined (bacteria, virus, parasites, etc.) would avail the clinician to, identify the severity of the disease, select the appropriate treatment and monitor the effectiveness of the treatment.