EFFECT OF FASTING ON BLOOD LIPID-PEROXIDATION PARAMETERS OF SHEEP

The effects of three-day fasting and one-day refeeding on some blood metabolites and parameters of lipid peroxidation were studied in eight non-pregnant merino ewes. Fasting produced an immediate decrease in blood glucose accompanied by an increase of free fatty acid, total lipid, total cholesterol and urea in the plasma. Starvation increased the concentration of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (malondialdehyde), with a slower but more sustained increase in the plasma than in the red blood cell haemolysate. Changes in glutathione peroxidase activity were the reverse of those in malondialdehyde concentration. Catalase activity was not measurable in plasma but was consistently increased in the haemolysate on fasting. Superoxide dismutase activity in the whole blood haemolysate significantly increased only on the first day of food deprivation. The vitamin E content of plasma showed no significant changes. The results indicate that energy deficiency, a well-known phenomenon in ruminants, affects not only the metabolic parameters of the blood but its lipid peroxidative status as well.