Hematologic and serum biochemical characteristics of rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus) in two different culture environments

Abstract

Abstract Hematological and serum biochemical parameters are essential for the evaluation of both structural and function status of fish species due to the involvement of culture environment and sex. To obtain a basic knowledge about the variation in hematological and serum biochemical parameters of conventional (CV) and specific pathogen-free (SPF) rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus) with respect to sex, blood samples collected from 720 healthy and adult rare minnow (♀:♂=1:1) are analyzed by using standard methods and techniques. The results indicated that hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (HCT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) values in female CV rare minnow were 82.4 ± 9.5 g/L, 41.6 ± 8.4%, 408.3 ± 81.6 fl, which were significantly lower than those in SPF rare minnow (p < 0.05). Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) differed significantly between these two cultured rare minnows (p < 0.05), and no significant differences were observed in other serum biochemical parameters (p > 0.05). In addition, MCV values of female rare minnow are significantly higher than male individuals (p > 0.05). These data demonstrated that hematological and serum biochemical parameters of rare minnow were affected by culture environment and sex, and that a clean culture environment could contribute to the health physiological status of rare minnow.