Many physiological processes including hematological profiles are usually used to assess the health status of animals, which are influenced by environmental factors such as temperature and food availability. In order to test the hypothesis that cold temperature and food shortage would reduce these physiological function, 37 adult male striped hamsters ( Cricetulus barabensis ) were randomly classified into the fed and food restricted groups, which were further assigned into the warm (23˚C ± 1˚C) and cold (5˚C ± 1˚C) groups, respectively. Cold temperature enhanced erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpusular hemoglobin (MCH), but reduced blood platelet count (PLT) and plateletocrit (PCT), indicating the increase of oxygen carrying capacity and the decrease of blood coagulation ability under low temperature, respectively. However, food restriction had no effect on the hematological parameters including red blood cells (RBC), haemoglobin concentration (HGB), mean corpusular hemoglobin (MCH), haematocrit (PCV), MCV, PLT and so on. These results indicated that food shortage did not affect the oxygen-carrying capacity and blood coagulation ability. In conclusion, cold temperature and food shortage exert different influences on hematological parameters.
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