Stability of Some Biochemical Parameters in Sheep and Goat Serum Stored at −20℃

BACKGROUND: In Veterinary Medicine biochemical investigation of serum is widely used to aid diagnosis and treatment. However, delays usually happen between sampling and analysis. As a result, the serum is stored in refrigerators. In this regard, information on the effects of temperature and storage duration on the stability of the analyte is incomplete in general and its effect in sheep and goat serum is not described. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the stability of selected biochemical analytes from sheep and goat serum following storage at −20℃ for 2 months. METHODS: Serum from 20 apparently healthy male 2–2.5 year-old sheep and goats was obtained and aliquots of serum from each sample were kept in three tubes. The first tube is for baseline (T0), which is done within an hour, while the other two (T1 and T2) are stored at −20℃ for 1 and 2 months, respectively. Total protein, albumin, urea, total cholesterol, and triglycerides were assayed. RESULTS: The results revealed that storage temperature and duration for up to 2 months had no significant effect on any analytes except for urea in goats. The changes in terms of total observed error (TE(o)) for total protein; albumin and urea were greater than the acceptable values in both animals. CONCLUSION: Thus, further studies are required to assure alteration of analyte at various storage temperatures and duration. In addition, implementation of quality systems to achieve quality targets for analytes with greater TE(o) as compared to the established TE(a) is needed.