Clinical-cytological and activation of neutrophils in blood and tracheobronquial lavage in sheep clinically healthy and patients with pneumonia

• Grant number: 11/09743-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Roberto Calderon Gonçalves
• Grantee: Roberto Calderon Gonçalves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The sheep industry has gained great prominence in the middle of cattle, being a very profitable activity and rising across the country. The animals, often kept in intensive care, are more predisposed to the development of diseases, especially respiratory tract. Just the kind of feedlot management, the spread of pathogens is favored, resulting in economic losses by reducing the production or even death of animals. Among the most frequent diseases of the respiratory tract in domestic species, especially sheep, we can highlight the pneumonia. The intense inflammatory response and accumulation of phagocytic cells in the lungs, lead to extensive damage in the structures of the respiratory tract due to oxidative stress due to the activation of neutrophils. The lavage fluid, despite being an easy exam, low cost and extremely reliable as the pulmonary cytology, it is routinely used in clinical trials of small ruminants. This work aimed to study the activation of neutrophils in the inflammatory response, measuring them in blood and lavage fluid and correlate it with clinical manifest in healthy sheep and those with pneumonia and its deleterious effects on lung function. For this, 60 sheep will be divided into three groups: i) G1/controle consisting of clinically healthy animals, ii) G2, composed of animals with moderate pneumonia and iii) G3, composed of animals with severe pneumonia. All animals should be subjected to physical examination, blood count, serum total protein and plasma fibrinogen, the cytologic evaluation of tracheobronchial lavage and measurement of neutrophil activation in peripheral blood and lavage fluid through the tests to reduce the dye nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT). (AU)