Hematology Profiles of Sandalwood Ponies in West Sumba Region on the Transition from Dry to Rainy Season 2019

Abstract

Sumba is one of the original habitats of the Sandalwood Ponies and the presence of pony is an important element for the community. The Sumbanese herd their ponies in the savanna and rely on nature as a source of horse feed, so on the dry season the availability of feed will decrease dramatically. This condition can potentially reduce the health status of ponies and increase morbidity or mortality from diseases. A total of 20 local Sumba ponies of various sexes and ages between 3-8 years of age were used on this study. Three milliliters of blood were drawn through the jugular vein and put in the EDTA tube. Hematological examination was carried out at the Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta. Erythrocytes (RBC), hematocrit (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb), leukocytes (WBC), neutrophil (neu), lymphocyte (lim), eosinophil (eos), basophil (bas), monocyte (mon) were examined using the automatic hematology analyzer Abaxis HM 5. Blood smear were done to see the possibility of blood parasites. Hematology examination shows that 20% (4/20) of horses had leukopenia, 55% (11/20) of horses had neutropenia, 50% of the ponies had anemia (10% [2/20] low RBC, 50% [10/20] low hemoglobin, and 20% [4/20] had decreased on PCV), 80% [16/20] hypochromia, 10% (2/20) had thrombocytopenia, and 5% (1/20) had thrombocytosis. All of the sample were negative from the blood  parasites by blood smear examination.

Key words: hematology, sandalwood pony, Sumba