The establishment of reliable reference ranges is a central prerequisite for the diagnostic evaluation of blood results. Such reference ranges should be established based on an adequate animal population and using identical techniques. The purpose of this retrospective study was to establish laboratory reference ranges for pet rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from routine diagnostic samples, sent to Laboklin between January 2015 and January 2017. Clinical chemistry parameters were determined using the cobas® c701 analyzer (Roche Diagnostics, Germany). Haematological parameters were determined using the Sysmex XT-2000i (Sysmex Deutschland GmbH, Germany). The statistical evaluation was performed using the Reference Limit Estimator 20151017. This tool calculates reference ranges from patients with unknown health status using an algorithm that excludes presumably non-healthy individuals by decreasing the statistical error based on a high number of data sets. Rabbit chemistry and hematology parameters were calculated from data sets of 937 to 2039 values resulting in lower, consistent, or, in some cases, higher reference ranges compared to reference ranges derived from the literature. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to calculate reference ranges based on data from routine diagnostic samples, enabling laboratories to establish their own reference ranges given an adequate amount of data. The program is accredited by the German Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine for human medicine. To our knowledge, this was the first time that Reference Limit Estimator 20151017 was used to calculate reference ranges for blood parameters in rabbits.

Disclosures

Disclosures to report.

Employee of Laboklin GmbH and Co. KG, a commercial veterinary laboratory.