The quality of livestock products depends on the mineral status of the
animals. The study of mineral elements makes it possible to investigate changes in the
environment and to prevent negative impacts both on the animal organism, the wellbeing of which is completely dependent on humans, and on the human organism, as
the final consumer of food of animal origin. A promising direction in veterinary
medicine is the development of new methods of non-invasive diagnostics for assessing
the state of health and determining metabolic disorders of essential elements in the
body of rabbits, because these methods will be more humane and will facilitate the
work of a veterinary medicine doctor.
The aim of the study was to determine the characteristics of mineral metabolism
in rabbits of the New Zealand white breed by age and sex and the informativeness of
the assessment of metabolism for the use of various biological materials.
The studies were carried out under production conditions on 24 clinically
healthy rabbits of the New Zealand White breed, of all ages and sex. For research,
blood, urine, and hair were taken from the animals. The content of trace elements in
biological materials was determined by the method of atomic emission spectrometry
with inductively coupled plasma.
A significant correlation was revealed between the content in the blood plasma
of rabbits of Calcium with hair (-0.42), Manganese with hair (-0.32), Iron with hair
(0.63), Zinc with hair (0.40), Copper with hair (0.39) and with urine (0.44); between
the content in whole blood of rabbits of Calcium with hair (0.47) and with urine (-
0.33), Manganese with hair (-0.32); between the content of Cobalt with hair in the
urine (-0.35). The dynamics of the content of Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Zinc, Cobalt,
and Copper in the biological materials of rabbits depending on their age and sex was
found out, which is indicated by a significant increase in the blood plasma of Calcium,
Manganese, Iron, Zinc, Cobalt, and Copper in females from 70 to 240 days and a
significant increase in Manganese and Zinc and a decrease in Copper in males from
70 to 90 days.
The informational content of the non-invasive method for diagnosing
microelementoses in rabbits has been experimentally and theoretically substantiated,
and the informational content of the microelement composition of hair for
biogeocoenotic diagnostics has been proved, which is appropriate for medical
examination and mass research of rabbits.
In the future, we plan to investigate other elements in different biological
materials of rabbits, followed by an assessment of the information content of noninvasive methods for diagnosing disorders of mineral metabolism.