Ascorbic acid influenced respiratory and drinking responses in pack donkeys during harmattan
Savannah Veterinary Journal · Volume 0, Issue 1 (2019) · pp. 41–47
Abstract
<jats:p>Introduction: Donkeys (Equus asinus, Perissodactyla) are inevitably exposed to environmental stress during work. They are commonly used for work during the harvest periods which coincide with harmattan in northern Nigeria. Experiments were performed to investigate the effect of ascorbic acid on respiratory and drinking responses of donkeys subjected to packing during harmattan.
Methods: Twelve apparently healthy donkeys served as subjects. Six donkeys administered orally with ascorbic acid and subjected to packing were used as test animals, while another six donkeys, not administered with ascorbic acid, served as controls. The respiratory rate, drinking responses and thermal environment parameters were evaluated before packing, during packing and after packing.
Results: The peak value (83.40 ± 6.9) of temperature humidity index (THI) was recorded at 30 min after-packing. The respiratory rate (RR) value recorded at 30 min post-packing in the control donkeys was higher (p < 0.05) than in test donkeys. The maximum value of RR recorded at 14:30 h in both control and test donkeys coincided with when THI was at its peak value of 83.4 ± 6.9. The mean percentage frequency of drinking in the control group (64.5 ± 2.2%) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the value (35.6 ± 2.2%) obtained in the test group. The overall work output obtained in the test and control donkeys were not significantly (p > 0.05) different.
Significance: Ascorbic acid (AA) reduced post-packing RR and drinking frequency, which gave credence to the anti-stress property of AA in the donkeys. Thus AA may have ameliorated the adverse effect of work stress during the stressful harmattan.</jats:p>