Abstract:

The current work emphasized understanding the liver functions while having pre-clinical or clinical fascioliasis accurately detect the disease phase from cows in Al-Diwaniyah City, Al-Qadisiyah Province, Iraq. The experimental design included the use of 30 cows in Al-Diwaniayh province divided into ten clinically healthy cows (control group), ten acutely infected cows with no apparent clinical signs (pre-clinical group), and ten chronically infected cows with observed clinical signs (clinical group), such as yellowish discoloration of the mucus membranes. Blood samples were collected from each cow for performing the following tests: Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), serum levels of pyruvate, lactate, and Cholesterol. The results showed that all the enzymes from the pre-clinical group were significantly (P<0.05) higher in their serum levels compared with those from the control group to elevate to significantly (P<0.05) higher levels in the clinical group in comparisons with those from the control and pre-clinical groups, excluding the ALT that revealed no significant (P>0.05) difference between the pre-and clinical groups. A significant (P<0.05) increase was seen in the pre-clinical group compared to those from the control group, with no significant (P>0.05) difference between the pre-and clinical groups. No significant (P>0.05) differences were recorded between all study groups at serum pyruvate and lactate levels. The present study reveals that the fascioliasis, dependent on the infestation phase, can progressively change the serum levels of the parameters mentioned above and may feasibly be used together as indicators for the accurate detection of the disease stage.

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