Effect of Temperature Storage on Hematological Parameters ofAvian Turkey Blood

Background: Hematology results are often influenced by the time between blood sampling and measurement, as well as storage conditions (e.g., temperature and time) during sample delivery between laboratories may further affect the resulting data. Hematological changes may occur in the measured parameters as a consequence of delayed analysis and may complicate interpretation of the data. Delayed analysis of blood samples may be caused by restricted access to laboratories. Blood samples collected from turkeys in remote locations (farms) often wait for laboratory processing. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate changes that occur in the packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin concentration, red blood cell (RBC) counts and mean corpuscular values (MCV) of turkey blood samples due to storage, including: blood samples stored at refrigerator (4°C), laboratory (24°C) and water bath (33°C) temperatures across a storage period of 72 h. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 25 adult turkeys (British United Turkey 600 hybrids – BUT 600). Hematological determinations were carried out on the blood samples immediately upon collection to obtain the baseline value (BV) and thereafter at specific time intervals across the 72-h duration of storage (DOS). Results: Results showed that for the samples stored at 4°C, there were no significant changes at p<0.05 level from the BV in the PCV, hemoglobin concentration and RBC counts, all through the 72-h DOS, but significantly increased values (p<0.05) were obtained when samples stored at 24°C and 33°C. Conclusion: Based on our research results we concluded following: blood samples obtained from turkey stored up to 72 hours at 4°C provides legitimate results for PCV, Hgb concentration and RBC count. MCV value is reliable if blood sample was stored up to 30 hours.