Biochemical and total hemocyte count profiles of long-clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) as a reference interval in southern Iran

One of the narrow-clawed crayfish of the freshwater is named Astacus leptodactylus. As the only crayfish species native to Iranian waters, Astacus leptodactylus is commonly distributed in Iranian water resources. Crayfish is considered a suitable biological indicator of the quality of water, a measure for the assessment of ecology and toxicology (ecotoxicology), and a model organism for the determination of the impact of pollutants. Blood biochemical parameters are useful indicators used to assess the physiological conditions of aquatic animals’ response to stress, contamination, physiological, and ecological changes; for this to work, knowing the normal parameter levels is vital. This study was aimed to determine the normal interval of the biochemical parameters in these species in Iran, which appears to be necessary for future planning and studies, especially for ecotoxicological studies. Biochemical parameters analyzed in this study were glucose (11.37 ± 1.53 mg/dl), urea (5.58 ± 0.62 mg/dl), creatinine (0.21 ± 0.02 mg/dl), AST (7.54 ± 0.82 U/L), ALT (7.04 ± 0.97 U/L), ALP (380.44 ± 33.46 U/L), total bilirubin (0.45 ± 0.32 mg/dl), calcium (8.39 ± 1.15 mg/dl), phosphorus (2.35 ± 0.24 mg/dl), total protein (1.72 ± 0.16 g/dl), albumin (4.30 ± 0.2 g/dl), iron (128.79 ± 12.54micg/dl), and magnesium (1.84 ± 0.32 mg/dl). The total number of hemocyte in samples was calculated to be mean 5.3 × 10⁴ per milliliter (n = 30, range 3.9 × 10³–1.59 × 10⁵).