Baseline Endocrine, Hematology and Serum Biochemistry Value in Wild Animals

Globally, wildlife is facing immense threats because of anthropogenic activities. The preservation of the health of native, rare, and endangered wildlife is fundamental for its conservation. Knowledge of reference biological values, often called ‘normal’ values, is crucial when interpreting endocrine, hematological, and serum chemistry data from animals. Even for wild animals, the establishment of such reference values is mandatory to assess the health status of individuals and populations. For captive or wild animals, the selection of ‘healthy, normal’ individuals is often problematic, due to the difficulties posed by their clinical examination. Furthermore, it is often difficult to obtain a large sample of a population, and many circumstances can influence the blood or serum concentrations of the factors to be examined. In wildlife, many variables could significantly influence animals’ biological parameters: the wild or captive habitat, wildlife management, seasonal changes, breeding, migrations, food availability, subclinical diseases or stress caused by living in too restricted areas, separated from other animals, or by the process of animal capturing and sampling. It is necessary to increase our knowledge of the “normal values” of laboratory parameters by pooling the available data and considering possible sources of bias. In this way, it would be possible to create a database that can help define these normal values in wild species. Improving our knowledge of this topic is key to improving wildlife healthcare and contributing to its conservation. For this Special issue, we welcome research papers from wildlife researchers operating in universities, zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, etc., discussing novel or established research-based baseline physiological data. Papers on analyses across study systems and in a global context are welcome.

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• wildlife
• hematological and serum biochemical values
• biological parameters
• reference values
• hormonal parameters