Effect of season and housing system on hematochemical attributes in rabbits of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of season and housing system on hematochemical attributes of rabbits in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Adult healthy rabbits (n=30) were divided into two groups of equal size (n=15). Group I was housed in a modern cage system and group II in traditional colony system for a period of one year. Blood samples of rabbits from both groups were collected in the summer and the winter seasons and analyzed for various hematochemical attributes. Hematochemical attributes including red blood cell (RBC) count, hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), total white blood cell (WBC) count, mixed cells (MID), granulocytes (GRA), glucose and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were lowered significantly (P<0.05) in the summer in relation to the winter, while mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), creatinine, and cholesterol level were significantly (P<0.05) higher during the summer season. Biochemical attributes as cholesterol, triglycerides and globulin were significantly (P<0.05) lower in the caged rabbits. In conclusion, the summer season caused a significant decrease in most of the hematochemical attributes whereas housing system did not affect most of the hematochemical attributes of the rabbits under the climatic conditions of Southern Punjab, Pakistan.