Influence of body mass at birth on the activity of enzymes and biocatalysts concentration in the serum of large white piglets until weaning/Utjecaj tjelesne mase pri porodaju na aktivnost enzima i koncentraciju biokatalizatora u serumu odojaka velikog jorksira do odbica

Newborn piglets weighing less than 1000 grams at birth are more susceptible to diseases and the negative influence of stress factors, slow progress, and therefore cause greater losses than heavier ones. Also, they are physiologically immature and establish postnatal metabolical mechanisms more slowly than suckling piglets of normal body mass. The aim of our research was to determine changes in the activity of some enzymes and concentrations of biocatalysts in the blood serum of suckling piglets. In this study 48 piglets were included: 24 animals with birth weight less than 1000 g (experimental group) and 24 littermates of the same sex with body mass of 1000 g and more (control group). Blood samples were taken on the 1st, 7th, 14th and 21st days of the piglets' life from the vena cava cranialis (1.5 mL) in BD Vacutainer SST tubes with the gel for biochemical analysis. After centrifugation, the samples were analyzed using an automatic analyzer Olympus AU 600. In the sera of both groups of piglets the activities of creatin kinase and alkaline phosphates as well as calcium and phosphorus concentrations were higher at weaning, while the concentrations of magnesium was below the reference value. Also, we found lower activity of creatin kinase in 1-day-old piglets with small birth mass (P