Assessment of transport stress on cattle travelling a long distance (˜648 km), from Jessore (Indian border) to Chittagong, Bangladesh

Alam, Mahabub; Hasanuzzaman, Md; Hassan, Mohammad Mahmudul; Rakib, Tofazzal Md; Hossain, Md Emran; Rashid, Md Harun; Sayeed, Md Abu; Philips, Lindsay B; Hoque, Md Ahasanul

The levels of Hb (P=0.01), TEC (P=0.001), TLC (P<0.001), lymphocyte (P=0.005), neutrophil (P=0.01), eosinophil (P=0.01) and the lymphocyte and neutrophil (L:N) ratio (P=0.006) significantly varied before and after transportation (ANOVA). A significant increase in Hb, TEC, neutrophil and L:N ratio was observed right after transport in comparison with the pretransport values, although the values returned to pretransport levels 24 hours after the end of transportation. In the case of TLC, the value increased significantly just after transportation, where after 24 hours of transportation it decreased to significantly lower than the pretransport value. The lymphocyte count decreased significantly just after transportation and also increased substantially at 24 hours after transportation, although the value remained lower than the pretransport one. A persistent increment of eosinophil count was observed along with the changes of phases of transportation (post-hoc test for pairwise comparison, P≤0.05) ( Table 5 ). Among the three separate sampling times, the PCV, monocyte count and basophil count showed no variations.