Clinical Evaluation of Creatine Kinase and Aspartate Aminotransferase for Monitoring Muscle Effort in Working Dogs in Different Simulated Fieldworks

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Search and rescue dogs are increasingly involved in finding survivors during catastrophic events. The need to investigate the possible physical conditions that can lead to disabling pathologies is urgent. In this clinical study, muscular effort was investigated through the evaluation of two muscle enzymes: creatine kinase and aspartate aminotransferase. The results show that effective conditioning supports submaximal activity (about 20 min), without any specific muscular enzymatic alteration. ABSTRACT: The clinical profiles of muscle biomarkers (Creatine Kinase–CK-and Aspartate Aminotransferase–AST) performed during training may help in determining the fitness level of dogs and their potentiality to perform specific activities. This study investigated the potential variations of physiological parameters and muscular biomarkers in trained search and rescue dogs during search activity in two different areas. The aim was to verify the absence of any muscular enzymes after 20 min of search activity. The variations of physiological parameters (pulse rate; respiratory rate; rectal body temperature) and skeletal muscular biomarkers (CK and AST) were evaluated before and after search activity. Twenty-three trained dogs met the inclusion criteria and were divided into two groups. One group experienced search activity in a well-known area, while the second one in a similar, but unknown, area. The results for physiological parameters and skeletal muscular biomarkers values showed no significant differences between the two groups (p > 0.05), confirming that an effective conditioning protects against enzymatic alteration during a 20 min duration of submaximal activity.