Hematology, Morphology, Cytochemical Staining, and Ultrastructural Characteristics of Blood Cells in King Cobras (Ophiophagus hannah)

Abstract

These results provide comparative hematologic data and a guide for identification of blood cells in wild-caught and captive-bred king cobra snakes. Hepatozoon infection was relatively common, but was not associated with severe hematologic abnormalities.

Biochemical and hematological profiles of a wild population of the nose-horned viper Vipera ammodytes (Serpentes: Viperidae) during autumn, with a morphological assessment of blood cells

“…The hematocrit (PCV) of V. ammodytes was in the range reported for other reptiles, as was the hemoglobin concentration (Dessauer 1970;Dutton and Taylor 2003). The total RBC count showed a slightly higher value than those reported for captive Bothrops species (Troiano et al 2000), but lower than those reported for captive Crotalus durissus terrificus (Troiano et al 1997), with values mostly similar to those of the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah, Salakij et al 2002) or some lizards (Sodeinde and Ogunjobi 1994). The MCV revealed that the erythrocytes of V. ammodytes had a typical volume for a reptile, reaching an upper value reported among snakes and lizards (Frye 1991).…”

“…Azurophils were reported in reptilian blood by some authors (Troiano et al 2000), but not by others (Wojtaszek 1991). Blood of V. ammodytes had a high azurophil count compared to that of other reptiles (Campbell and Ellis 2007), but was similar to that reported for a wild population of king cobra (Salakij et al 2002). Both the lymphocyte and azurophil counts showed relatively high variations in V. ammodytes blood.…”

“…Also, the parasite load in captive populations is absent or negligible (Rangel-Mendoza et al 2009). In a study done on the king cobra, a wild population showed significantly lower values for most RBC-related parameters, compared to the captive population (Salakij et al 2002). This must be taken into account if data from this study are used for assessing the health status of captive populations of V. ammodytes.…”

“…The mean total WBC count in V. ammodytes was similar to that reported for some other snake species (Troiano et al 2000), but it was higher than those reported for pre-and posthibernating vipers held in captivity (Dutton and Taylor 2003). It is considered normal that wild populations have higher total WBC values than captive ones, probably due to elevated parasite infestations and also due to differences in ambient conditions between natural and captive environments (Salakij et al 2002;Rangel-Mendoza et al 2009). Some lizards show high values of the total WBC count (Sodeinde and Ogunjobi 1994), which is near the maximum value recorded for V. ammodytes.…”

Aspectos citoquímicos e morfológicos de elementos sanguíneos das serpentes dos gêneros Bothrops e Crotalus mantidas em cativeiro no serpentário do Instituto Vital Brasil

“…Em coloração SBB, a reação foi igualmente negativa (Tab. 2), conforme também relataram CaxtonMartins e Nganwuch, (1978); Alleman et al (1992) e Salakij et al (2002). …”