Association between maternal dystocia and both the oxidant/antioxidant biomarkers and blood lactate in parturient Egyptian buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis)

Citation: Fouad et al., Association between maternal dystocia and both the oxidant/antioxidant biomarkers and blood lactate in parturient Egyptian buffaloes ( Bubalus bubalis ). 5(4): 1-14. Abstract Dystocia is a critical obstetrical problem in farm animals and is classified into maternal or fetal dystocia. The maternal causes of dystocia include different causes such as uterine torsion (UT), failure of cervical dilation (FCD), and uterine inertia (UI). Maternal dystocia induces massive oxidative stress due to increased production of free radicals with high levels of malondialdehyde (MDA). Little information is available on oxidants and antioxidant biomarkers and blood lactate (bLac) in parturient buffaloes with maternal dystocia. The current research aimed to clarify different causes of maternal dystocia in buffaloes and the association between the oxidative stress of parturient buffaloes and different types of maternal dystocia. Thirty-five parturient buffaloes were included in this study. Parturient buffaloes included normal parturition (NP; n=7), UT (n=23), FCD (n=4), and UI (n=1). Ten-ml blood samples were collected via jugular vein puncture into two tubes; plain vacutainer tubes for separation of serum to measure bLac and heparin coated vacutainer tube for separation of plasma for determination of MDA, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The results revealed that the major cause of maternal dystocia in the included buffaloes was UT. The UT was commonly post-cervical, clockwise, and > 180°. UT negatively affected both dam survival and calf viability. In addition, evaluation of oxidants and antioxidants biomarkers indicated that maternal dystocia causes more oxidative stress added to physiological stress of calving. This study found that, 4-days post-treatment period was not sufficient to resume antioxidant defense mechanism in UT buffaloes as no significant changes had been detected throughout the sampling period after treatment of UT. Moreover, evaluation of both GPx and bLac indicated their possible detection as indicators for prognosis of UT cases, where the concentration of GPx was significantly lower and the concentration of bLac was significantly higher in dead/culled buffaloes with UT.