Haematological studies of ruminant vertebrates (cow, sheep and goat) present one acceptable
method of understanding the ecological biochemical and physiological relationship between lower and higher
vertebrate animals like man. Haematological/Biochemical studies were carried out on blood from the vertebrate
ruminants: Goat (
Capra hircus
-L), sheep (
Ovis Aries
dolrchra), cattle (
Bos taurus
) and human (
Homo sapiens
) as
control, indicated that; Electrophoretically goat blood revealed three different Hb polymorphic types: HbAA
(45%), HbAS (50%) and HbSS (5%). Only the ‘O’ Rh blood group was observed in all cases, and GST values of
4.05-6.30 I.U were obtained on the other hand. Cow Hb electrophoresis produced two patterns corresponding to
the human HbAA and HbAS types. Only the ‘O’ Rh
- blood group was obtained in all cases and GST values of
2.85-5.02 I.U were obtained, while sheep blood produced only the HbAA-type, only the ‘O’ blood group was
identified in all case. GST activity values were in the range of 3.05-4.52 I.U. These results could point to definite
haematological and biochemical similarities in man and ruminants and thus serves as a springboard for further
genetic studies using lower vertebrates research models.
