Comparative study and storage stability of serum hepatobiliary enzyme activities in Murrah buffaloes.

The present study was designed and conducted to fi nd the appropriate physical baseline values for hepatobiliary enzymes such as, alanine aminotransferases (ALT), aspartate aminotransferases (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyltransferases (GGT) in adult healthy Murrah buffaloes in hot humid climatic conditions and also to assess the ideal storage condition for buffalo sera samples meant for the assay of hepatobiliary enzymes by storing at room temperature (22 to 27oC), 4oC and -20oC up to 14 days. The normal mean serum activities of ALT, AST, ALP and GGT were 50.0 ± 3.53, 130.0 ± 7.29, 323.6 ± 32.09 and 10.11 ± 1.28 IU/L, respectively. ALT and GGT were found to be suffi ciently stable up to the study period of 14 days at both 4oC and -20oC but unstable at room temperature. AST was found to be stable for 11 days at 4oC and 8 days at room temperature and was stable only 2 days at -20oC. Alkaline phosphatase showed great variation upon storage as compared to the other hepatobiliary enzymes and it is suggested that its estimation should be performed in fresh serum samples to get a more accurate result. Thus, the present study reveals specifi c reference values for each serum hepatobiliary enzyme in Murrah buffaloes of the hot humid tropics. From these results it is also advisable to consider stability of each serum hepatobiliary enzymes for different animals separately before preserving sera samples to get more valid and reliable results.