Response of Stress-Susceptible and Stress-Resistant Hampshire Pigs to Electrical Stress II. Effects on Blood Cells and Blood Minerals

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Abstract
Stress-susceptible (SS) and stress-resistant (SR) purebred Hampshire pigs were used to study the effects of electrical stress (.05 amperes and 30 volts) on the total number of red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM), eosinophils (EOS), monocytes (MON), basophils (BAS), hematocrit (HEM) and the serum levels of sodium (Na), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg). Blood samples were obtained from jugular cannulae 15 min and 5 min pre-stress and 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 and 120 min post-stress from each pig on 3 separate days. The SS pigs had higher (P<.01) pre-stress levels of WBC, LYM and K compared to the SR pigs even though the blood cannulae allowed blood collection with a minimum of stress. The post-stress WBC, NEU, EOS numbers and K level were similar for the SS and SR pigs until 60 and/or 120 min post-stress when the levels of WBC, NEU and K values were higher for SS pigs and the EOS number were lower for SS pigs when compared to SR pigs (P<.05). The LYM numbers of the SS pigs were consistently lower throughout the post-stress bleedings when compared to the SR pigs. The post-stress LYM numbers of the SS pigs at 15 min and 120 min (P<.05) and 60 min (P<.01) were lower than the SR pigs'. The SS and SR pigs had similar MON and BAS numbers at each pre- and post-stress bleeding time comparison. The pre-stress HEM levels were similar for SR and SS pigs, although an immediate post-stress increase (P<.01) in HEM levels was obtained for the SS pigs which remained to the end of bleedings. Na and Mg levels showed no difference between SS and SR pigs over both pre- and post-stress times of bleeding (P>.05). However, at every bleeding time the SS pigs' Na levels were lower and the Mg serum levels were higher when compared to the SR pigs' Na and Mg serum levels. Copyright © 1979. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1979 by American Society of Animal Science.