**7. The use of serum protein electrophoresis in small ruminants**

The usefulness of the electrophoretic separation of serum proteins was studied by Woolf et al. [273] in bighorn sheep with chronic pneumonia attributed to *Mycoplasma*. In this study, diseased sheep had significantly lower albumin, and higher α<sup>1</sup> - and γ-globulins. The alterations of the serum protein electrophoretic profile were investigated also in sheep naturally infected with *Babesia ovis* [251]. In this study, the diseased sheep before treatment had markedly lower concentrations of both total serum proteins and all protein fractions when compared with healthy animals. A significant increase of total serum proteins and globulins (except for the α-globulin fraction) was found 5 days after treatment, but the values were still lower than those obtained in healthy sheep. The aforementioned authors stated that babesiosis may induce intense proteolysis of the circulating proteins probably due to the altered protein synthesis by the liver, which was improved by the eradication of parasites. Similarly, the alterations in the serum protein profile induced by the infection with *Haemonchus contortus* were studied by Diogenes et al. [245] in goats. In the infected goats, severe hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia were observed, while the concentrations of α- and γ<sup>2</sup> -globulins were markedly increased. Experimental infection of goats by *Fasciola hepatica* resulted also in changes in serum protein profile, manifested by decreased concentrations of albumin, increased values of total serum proteins, γ-globulins, and increased proportion of acute-phase proteins from the α- and β-globulin fractions [274].

Changes in the serum proteinogram were found also in sheep with acute ruminal lactic acidosis with the most intense alterations in the α-globulins [275]. Increased concentrations were recorded in the concentrations of haptoglobin, probably due to the death of Gram-negative bacteria caused by decreased ruminal pH, as well as inflammatory processes induced by ruminitis. Acute ruminal acidosis in sheep was accompanied also by the increase in the values of α<sup>1</sup> -antitrypsin, ceruloplasmin, as well as fibrinogen.
