Reference Intervals for Blood Analytes of Adult Aquarium-Housed Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii).

Russian or Danube sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) are an important, critically endangered roe-producing species. Despite a wealth of knowledge pertaining to other members of Acipenseridae there is very limited published information regarding baseline blood analytes in Russian sturgeon. The objectives of this study were 1) to establish reference intervals for a suite of hematological and biochemical data and 2) to compare plasma chemistry data to two point-of-care (POC) cartridges, tested on the VetScan iSTAT® 1 analyzer, that use heparinized whole blood for the assessment of clinically normal, aquacultured adult Russian sturgeon sedated with eugenol (Aqui-S® 20E) at a single institution. Reference intervals are reported. The calculated hematocrit measured by the POC analyzer tended 4-5% lower than the spun packed cell volume (PCV), confirming the importance of spun PCV as a reliable measurement of red blood cell mass. Various analytes, notably whole blood urea nitrogen, glucose, sodium, total carbon dioxide, chloride, ionized calcium, and anion gap, were significantly different by both POC cartridges. This study successfully produced reference intervals for blood analytes in adult Russian sturgeon under managed care and creates a foundation for future studies into the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, and into variations of analytical methodologies on blood analytes in this species.