Blood chemistry in southern elephant seal mothers and pups during lactation reveals no effect of handling

Serum clinical chemistry parameters were examined in lactating southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina mothers and their pups from the declining Macquarie Island population. There were significant changes in serum values from 2 to 21 days postpartum in both nursing mothers (increase: inorganic phosp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Main Authors: Engelhard, G H, Hall, A J, Brasseur, S M J M, Reijnders, P J H
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2002
Subjects:
chemical immobilisation
clinical chemistry
health status
human disturbance
lactation
Mirounga leonina
physical restraint
pinnipedia
MIROUNGA-LEONINA
PHOCA-VITULINA
HARBOR SEALS
MACQUARIE ISLAND
REFERENCE VALUES
HEMATOLOGY
POPULATION
IMMOBILIZATION
TILETAMINE
PARAMETERS
Elephant Seal
Macquarie Island
Phoca vitulina
Southern Elephant Seal
Online Access:https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/researchoutput/blood-chemistry-in-southern-elephant-seal-mothers-and-pups-during-lactation-reveals-no-effect-of-handling(41b55b1d-849d-41d8-b515-dac12653b530).html
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1095-6433(02)00169-1
Description
Summary:Serum clinical chemistry parameters were examined in lactating southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina mothers and their pups from the declining Macquarie Island population. There were significant changes in serum values from 2 to 21 days postpartum in both nursing mothers (increase: inorganic phosphate; decrease: creatinine, potassium, chloride, cholesterol, total protein, albumin, globulin, aspartate aminotransferase, creatine kinase) and suckling pups (increase: inorganic phosphate, globulin, cholesterol; decrease: albumin, alkaline phosphatase, gammaglutamyl transferase; increase followed by decrease: triglycerides, iron). We found no evidence that changes were due to chronic stress effects caused by repeated chemical immobilisations (mothers) or physical restraint (pups): at late lactation, clinical chemistry values were similar for mother-pup pairs of a control group (not handled previously), moderate treatment group (previously handled twice) and high treatment group (previously handled three to four times). We were not able to detect differences in clinical chemistry values between mother-pup pairs distributed over two areas differing in the frequency of human visits. The clinical chemistry values presented here can serve as reference ranges to allow future comparison with other southern elephant seal populations to investigate factors, e.g. food limitation, suspected to be involved in population declines. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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