The impact of captivity on some haematological parameters of griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus).

Haematological analysis is an essential field of veterinary medicine that provides inexpensive and reliable support to determinate animal health. The knowledge of how different factors affect the normal mean values of blood parameters is key to understand and improve animal health. In order to investigate how captivity can affect the haematological profile of birds of prey, the erythrocyte count, haemoglobin concentration, haematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, total leukocytes count of 123 griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) were analysed. The birds were divided into 4 groups according to their life conditions: a control group of free-living griffons, 2 semi-captive groups held in an aviary for 15 and 30 days respectively, representing short-term captivity, and a captive group that had lived in cage for about 2 years. Our results showed that long-term captivity could influence haematocrit value and haemoglobin concentration. Furthermore, discriminant analysis highlighted significant separation between the captive birds on one hand and the control group and the semi-captive birds on the other. Instead, short-term captivity did not seem to affect prominently haemocytometric profile.