Haematological and biochemical profiling of Ladakhi cow: A native cattle of high altitude Leh-Ladakh, India

Ladakhi cattle is a native breed of cattle which is well adapted to hypobaric-hypoxia and cold-stress conditions prevalent at high altitude. These cattle are the main source of A2 quality milk. However, their utility, health and dairy production managements were not standardised for optimum dairy farm economics. Moreover, the haematological and biochemical parameters have not been investigated in details in adult Ladakhi cows, which is the primary requirement of farm health managements. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the haematology and biochemical parameters in adult Ladakhi cow to establish baseline reference values. Clinically healthy female Ladakhi cattle (10) were selected from the Ladakhi cattle research section, DIHAR, Leh. The resulted haematological and biochemical parameters were compared with already reported reference values for low lander cattle and high lander native and crossbred cattle. Haematological findings revealed that RBC, Hb, heamatocrit, MCV and WBC were within the reference range, rather MCH and MCHC values were more than the reference range. Biochemical findings revealed that albumin, glucose, creatinine, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase, and aspartate aminotransferase were within the reference range limits of low lander. However, urea, triglycerides, total protein values were higher than the reference range and calcium was less than the reference range. These findings indicated that the native Ladakhi cattle are in healthy condition and metabolically adapted to high altitude stress. Hence, these hemato-biochemical profile could be the good biomarkers to evaluate their health status in high altitude stress condition.