IMPACT OF CAPTIVITY AND CONTAMINATION LEVEL ON BLOOD PARAMETERS OF HARBOR SEALS (PHOCA-VITULINA)

Multiple basic blood biochemical parameters (metabolites, lipids, enzy mes and hormones) from different harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) populat ions were determined. One seal population was from an environmentally uncompromised area around Iceland, another population consisted of sea ls from the (polluted) German Wadden Sea area, In addition, seals orig inating from the Wadden Sea area and reared in two seal pup stations w ere investigated, In general, the laboratory values of the seals' bloo d were in the same order of magnitude as in humans, however, marked di fferences in many laboratory parameters were found, The levels of many parameters measured in the Iceland group clustered together with thos e levels from the seal pup stations group, while most often the German Wadden Sea group showed significantly different levels, especially in comparison to the Iceland population, When the data from the seal pup stations were divided on the basis of captivity into a short-term and a long-term group, significant differences were found, In general, th e levels of the parameters of the short-term group were nearer to the Wadden Sea group levels, whereas those of the long-term group were nea rer those of the Iceland group, Since the seals in the seal pup statio ns were fed on a, mixed diet containing both local polluted fish and l ess contaminated fish from different origin the differences in the lev els of the biochemical parameters may in part be attributed to the lev el of the environmental burden in the diet.