Hematological and clinicochemical profiles of healthy swine and swine with inflammatory processes.

The hematological and clinicochemical profiles of healthy swine and swine with inflammatory processes were investigated. Blood was collected at slaughter and postmortem examination was performed to select healthy swine and swine with pleuritis, pneumonia or abscesses. In healthy swine, the values of several variables revealed significant differences between gilts, barrows and boars. This was caused predominantly by the values obtained for boars. Inflammatory processes altered the values of most variables investigated, particularly for erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hemoglobin and hematocrit, for the activity of alkaline phosphatase, and for concentrations of iron, phosphate, albumin and fibrinogen in plasma. Compared with healthy swine, differences were largest for swine with metastatic abscesses and swine with both abscesses and other pathological lesions; differences were less pronounced in swine with solitary abscesses and were minor in swine with pneumonia and swine with pleuritis. Porcine hematological and clinicochemical profiles reflect the degree of inflammation.