Electrocardiographic abnormalities and their association with some serum biomarkers in lambs with foot and mouth disease

Little attention has been paid to the aspects of cardiac injury-related foot and mouth disease (FMD) in young animals. So, this research was conducted to evaluate the serum biomarkers and electrocardiographic (ECG) evidence of myocardial injury in the infected lambs with FMD. During an outbreak, 33 lambs with FMD and 11 healthy lambs were randomly enrolled. After blood sampling, ECGs were taken from 24 out of 33 infected lambs. Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) activities were measured in both the patients and the control group. Interpretation of ECG showed abnormalities such as sinus tachycardia, premature ventricular complex (PVC) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 9, 5 and 6 sick lambs, respectively. The patients had significantly greater serum CK-MB activity (170 ± 36 IU/L) compared to the control group (51.4 ± 4.7), (P 0.01). The lambs with VT had the highest serum CK-MB (546.5 ± 192 IU/L) and LDH (2813 ± 523 IU/L) activities compared to the affected lambs with the other dysrhythmias (P 0.01). It seems that CK-MB has a reliable value for detecting cardiac injury in sheep. Due to the highest CK-MB level in the lambs with VT, it seems VT is associated with highest cardiac lesion compared to other arrhythmias in FMD lambs.