Plasma citrulline, arginine, nitric oxide, and blood ammonia levels in neonatal calves with acute diarrhea

Gultekin, Mehmet; Voyvoda, Huseyin; Ural, Kerem; Erdogan, Hasan; Balikci, Canberk; Gultekin, Gamze

The interactions between severity of diarrhea and age and between degree of dehydration and age for CIT and its related metabolites were also not significant. However, there were significant effects of severity of diarrhea on plasma CIT (P = .04), ARG (P = .04), NO (P < .001), and 39 The blood ammonia concentration with a median of 28.7 μmol/L in healthy control calves ( Table 2 ) was in agreement with the values <90 μmol/L reported previously by other investigators. 40 Veterinary assessment of calves with diarrhea is generally based on clinical examination and routine laboratory variables alone; however, To date, no studies have evaluated plasma CIT in neonatal calves with acute diarrhea, and only 1 study on ARG levels demonstrated lower lysine + ARG concentrations. 41 Therefore, the plasma CIT concentration observed in the present study is not directly comparable.