Polish Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the chemiluminescence (CL) of peripheral blood in clinically healthy horses of different sexes and ages. The tests were carried out on 119 half--breed horses, representing various forms of use (66 recreational horses and 53 sport horses). The test material was peripheral blood, which was collected under resting conditions, i.e. before physical activity related to the use of these animals. In the blood samples, spontaneous and stimulated CL with zymosan and phorbol myristate acetate were determined. It has been found that regular training effort increases the blood's pro-oxidative potential, which was demonstrated by significantly higher (p<0.05) CL values in sport horses compared to recreational animals. Analysis of the results did not show any statistically significant correlation between sex or age of the horses with chemiluminescence values in peripheral blood. The result of the research suggests the need to optimize the results of blood CL measurements, taking into account the number of neutrophils and the concentration of hemoglobin in the blood of tested animals. Analysis of non-optimized blood CL results may lead to premature conclusions.