| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 獸醫學系暨研究所 === 107 === Part I
Domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have numerous breeds, and the pet rabbit population consists of a variety of pure- and cross-breeds. However, the RIs for rabbits are limited by outdated methods and a single-breed source. The study aimed to establish more complete, updated erythrocytic and biochemical RIs for the cross-breed pet rabbit population to improve routine diagnostic accuracy in clinical practice, and to examine the cross-breed effects on erythrocytic and biochemical indices. Blood specimens were collected from 85 clinically healthy cross-breed pet rabbits representing a wide range of breeds. Reference Intervals for the hematological and 12 chemistry analytes were determined as recommended by the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology guidelines. The results were compared to 4 widely used reference RIs. Age and sex differences for all parameters were statistically analyzed. The results diverged from the RIs for New Zealand White rabbits, indicating that not all RIs from this species are appropriate for daily clinical exotic animal practice. The breed-associated variations were evident for aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and glucose while cross-breed effects were found for creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, total protein, albumin, phosphate, and calcium. Statistically significant differences and clinical relevance among age groups were detected for hemoglobin, hematocrit, total white blood cell count and creatinine. Establishing RIs specifically for cross-breed pet rabbits is desirable for clinicians treating pet rabbits of various breeds and ages. Age-specific RIs for this population warrants further investigation.
Part II
Kidney disease (KD) is a common geriatric disorders in pet rabbits. On the daily clinical practice, creatinine is the most commonly used biomarkers of KD but is influenced by many factors therefore not sensitive. Additional renal biomarkers, such as USG, UPC ratio, and uGGT, which allow early detection of decreased kidney function, are well-studied in dogs and cats1, however, few researches investigated the utility of these biomarkers in pet rabbits. In addition, there was no appropriate RIs for these parameters therefore they were rarely put into practice by veterinarians in the clinic. The present study aimed to establish the RIs for UPC ratio, USG and uGGT index and to explore the applicability of these urinary indices as indicators of KD in pet rabbits. Thirty healthy rabbits and 11 rabbits with KD were included. The comparative results showed significantly lower RI for urine protein in cross-breed pet rabbits compared with the literature mainly consist of pure-breed rabbits, the disparity may due to the breed-associated differences. In addition, significantly higher CRE and UPC ratio, lower USG were found in KD group compared to the healthy group. Finally, the receiver operator characteristic curve analysis showed high AUC (>0.75) of UPC ratio, USG and uGGT index, indicating good performances. The combined use of CRE with UPC ratio (0.991), and CRE with uGGT index (0.967) is higher than that of individual CRE (0.955), UPC ratio (0.934) or uGGT index (0.730), suggests even better performance. To conclude, the current study highlights the clinical value of the urinary indices in cross-breed pet rabbit population. However, some limitations existed such as relatively small sample size and the included cases were mostly CKD, thus the performances of these biomarkers worth further investigating.
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