INFLUENCE OF THE COLD SEASON ON THE MORPHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STATUS OF HORSES OF THE YAKUT BREED

Abstract

Herd horse breeding in Yakutia is developing mainly as a meat industry. Horses of the Yakut breed are characterized by high adaptive qualities to extreme environmental conditions, as well as good feeding and fattening ability. It has been shown that Yakut horses bred in the Vilyui zone (Western zone) have higher red blood counts: the number of erythrocytes is 11.7% and the hemoglobin level is 7.3% significantly higher (P <0.001) than those in horses in the Central Zone. However, the number of leukocytes in the blood of the horses of the Central zone was 5.4% higher than that of the horses of the Vilyui zone (the difference is not significant). Depending on the breeding zone, reliably significant differences were revealed in the leukogram: in horses of the Vilyui zone, the content of basophils is more than 2 times higher (P <0.01), segmented neutrophils - by 25.8% (P <0.001) than in horses from Central zone. It was found that in Yakut horses in winter, the total protein content is 25.19% higher than in spring (P <0.001). There are also significantly higher indicators for protein fractions: α₁ -globulin - by 29.95% (P <0.05), β- and γ_1,2-globulins - by 16.69 and 42.29; 40.2% (P <0.001), respectively, compared with those in the spring. Thus, the extreme natural and climatic conditions of Yakutia create extremely difficult conditions for the existence of the Yakut horse, especially in the winter period during the nursery, when the animals are on pasture of natural lands. At the same time, the activity of the immune system provides high adaptive qualities of the Yakut horse in the cold season.