Bone marrow and kidney fat as indicators of condition in reindeer

Abstract

Back-fat depth, kidney-fat index (KFI), fat and triglyceride contents in femur and metatarsal marrows were measured from 92 semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus L.) in northern Finland during 1980-84. The age of the reindeer varied from 5 months to 10 years and marrow fat content was estimated by five different methods: standard ether extraction, oven-drying (Neiland, 1970), reagent-dry assay (Verme and Holland, 1973), compression method (Greer, 1968) and visual estimation (Cheatum, 1949). The kidney-fat index (Riney, 1955) was significantly related (r=0.892) to the percent marrow fat in femur and metatarsus. The oven-drying method gave high correlations with results obtained by ether extraction and reagent-dry methods. Oven-drying produced a lower mean dry-weight value than reagent-drying (1.31 ±0.36%). The amount of compression had a concave relationship with the ether-extractable fat content of femur and metatarsal marrows. The subjectiveness of the visual estimation technique limited its use. Femur marrow fat contents (dry-weight %) in reindeer which died from starvation varied between 2 - 8%. Metatarsal fat contents were slightly higher. Adult males had a mean triglyceride content of 46.8 |Jmol/g in August in the femur. Adult females had slightly lower values. The amount of triglycerides was significantly related to the ether-extractable fat content of the femur (r=0.914) and metatarsal (r=0.911)

Fat composition and Nunamiut decision-making: a new look at the marrow and bone grease indices

“…Foragers seem to be well aware of this phenomenon, as they have been observed to use marrow characteristics to evaluate the nutritional condition of killed animals (for a Nunamiut example see Binford [1:187], for a Hadza example see Bunn et al [8:427]). Reports on caribou marrow suggest that fat is mobilized first in proximal (femur and humerus) bones of the legs [9,14,31]. However, there is no clear sequence of fat mobilization between the mid leg bones (tibia and radio-ulna) and bones from the extremities (metapodials) in caribou.…”

Evaluation of silage diets offered to reindeer calves intended for slaughter. II. Feeding of silage and concentrate from January to March

“…Possible markers of body condition of reindeer are the depots of body fat (e.g. Nieminen & Laitinen, 1986) and the content of the reticulo-rumen (Adamczewski et al, 1987). Data from a simultaneous study (Nilsson et al, 1996b), makes it possible to compare the initial condition and the subsequent performance of the free-ranged calves recruited in January 1995 for the present study with calves taken from the same herd in September 1994.…”

Volume calculation of the cattle (Bos taurus L.) and the water buffalo (Bos bubalis L.) metapodia with stereologic method

“…Probably because of this preference, it has been reported that volumetric calculations were made by extraction method to predict the amount of bone marrow in distal extremities [13,14]. However, stereological methods are considered as a more acceptable scientific approach for these calculations [15,18], because the classical methods revealed some difficulties such as injecting fluid to the cavity of bone. By using Cavalieri principle, which is a stereological method, not only the volume of bone marrow but also volume of the bone can be calculated.…”