Evaluation of various biochemical stress markers and morphological traits in different goat breeds at high-altitude environment

ABSTRACT

The high-altitude region represents the extreme climatic condition that may have an adverse effect on body weight and alteration in stress markers of livestock animals. Thus, the aim of our study was to evaluate different morphological traits and biochemical stress markers in different breeds of the goat at Leh-Ladakh, India. In this study, 27 adult female goats of three different breeds like Changthangi—a native breed of high altitude, Sirohi—a low lander breed from the plain area, and Crossbred—Changthangi × Sirohi. After 330 days of rearing, a comparative assessment of the seven different morphological traits and seven biochemical stress markers were analyzed. The MDA level and LDH activity of crossbred goat were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower than Changthangi and Sirohi breeds. However, CAT, FRAP, % DPPH, GSH, and β-carotene were found significantly higher in the crossbred as compared to Sirohi and Changthangi breeds. In addition, a significant progressive rise in body weight of crossbred was observed as compared to both the pure breeds. The study concludes that prolonged exposure of high altitude has a lesser adverse effect on the crossbred goat that may be due to an effective body adaptive mechanism against high-altitude-induced oxidative stress.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Body weight
• goat breed
• high altitude
• morphological traits
• oxidative stress

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge DRDO HQ, New Delhi, India, for financial support and research fellowship to the first author. We would like to thank Dr Deepok Gogoi and other technical staff of our animal facility for the care of the experimental goats and for their assistance during the laboratory work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.