Hematological changes during the pregnancy and parturition are of great importance in humans and have been studied in several species of domestic animals. The objective was to determine changes in erythrogram, iron metabolism and the serum concentration of erythropoietin in nuliparous female Saanen caprine during periods of pregnancy, parturition and postpartum. Blood samples were collected from 20 goats, clinically healthy, the 49 (M1), 42 (M2), 35 (M3), 28 (M4), 21 (M5), 14 (M6), seven (M7), three (M8) days in the pregnancy, parturition (M9), three (M10) and seven (M11) days postpartum for the erythrogram, plasma total protein and the serum of erythropoietin, iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation index and ferritin determination. The data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% level of significance (P<0,05). Significant difference (P<0,05) between a few moments for the variables, erythrocytes count, hemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume, total plasma proteins, serum iron concentration, total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and transferrin saturation index (TSI) determination. There were no significant difference for the variables erythropoietin, mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell hemoglobin (MCH), mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red cell distribution width (RDW) and ferritin. In conclusion, there was no stimulus for the increasing of the red blood cells production during the periods of pregnancy, parturition and postpartum in nuliparous Saanen goats. No clinical significance was observed in the in red blood cell count and in the iron metabolism.
Erythrocyte; iron; erythropoietin; pregnancy; parturition; goats
