Serum protein gel agarose electrophoresis in captive tigers

Given the endangered status of tigers (Panthera tigris) the health of each individual is 26 important and any data on blood chemistry values can provide valuable information alongisde 27 assessment of physical condition. The nature of tigers in the wild makes it is extremely difficult to 28 obtain biological samples from free-living subjects, therefore the values obtained from captive tigers 29 provides very useful data. Serum protein electrophoresis is a useful tool in the diagnosis and 30 monitoring of a number of diseases. In this study we evaluated agarose gel serum protein 31 electrophoresis on samples from 11 healthy and 4 unhealthy captive tigers. Serum electrophoresis, 32 on all 15 tiger samples successfully separated proteins into albumin, α1, α2, β1, β2 and γ globulin 33 fractions as in other mammals. Electrophoretic patterns were comparable in all tigers . Mean± 34 standard deviation, median and range values obtained for each protein fraction in healthy tigers were 35 respectively: 3.6± 0.2, 0.21 (0.2-0.23), 1.2± 0.2, 10.7±0.2, 0.4 (0.3-0.6), 1.2 (1-1.8) gr/dl. The results of this 36 preliminary study provide the first data on serum electrophoretic patterns in tigers and may be a 37 useful diagnostic tool in the health assessment of this endangered species.