HEMATOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION BY Trypanosoma vivax IN SHEEP

Abstract

The research evaluated the hematological alterations in sheep infected experimentally with T. vivax strain precedent of Paraiba State. Eight male sheep were used, four in the testimony group and four infected with 105 T. vivax. Blood samples were collected two times before infection and posterior to receiving on days designated. The evaluated parameters were: red blood cell count, total leucocytes, hemoglobin, hematocritic, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, transferrin and iron. The animals were examined daily by pasitemia. The statistical analysis was carried through using the Wilcoxon test of 5% of probability. The results were: parasites were detected in the blood on the first day after the infection of the intermittent parasite until the end of the experiment, there was a significant decrease in the red blood cell count, hemoglobin and in the hematocritic and in the average mean corpuscular volume, the anaemia, at the end of the observations, were microcitic, normochromic.  The transferrin that were high and iron decreased at the end of the experimental period and observed leucocytosis due to the lymphocytes. The T. vivax strain precedent of Paraiba State occasioned relevant hematological alterations in sheep characterized for anaemia and elevation of leukocytes.

KEY WORKS: Haematologia, sheep, Trypanosoma.