Advances in Life Science and Technology www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-7181 (Paper) ISSN 2225-062X (Online) Vol.21, 2014 56 Factors Affecting Some Hematology and Serum Biochemical Parameters in Three Indigenous Sheep Breeds Rabee A.S. Oramari * , Araz O. Bamerny and Hawar M.H. Zebari Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry/University of Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. *E-mail of the corresponding author: rabee.oramari@uod.ac Abstract This study was aimed to investigate the effect of some factors such as breed, age and sex on some hematological and biochemical parameters at Duhok province; Kurdistan region of Iraq. Blood samples from 120 healthy sheep (60 males and 60 females) from three flocks around Duhok city were used. The overall mean for Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Hemoglobin (HB), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), Neutrophils to Lymphocyte ratio (N/L), Total Protein (TP), Albumin (ALB), Globulin (GLO), Glucose (GLU), Cholesterol (CHO) and Blood Urea (BU) were 27.35± 3.16 %, 8.93 ± 1.07 g/dl, 8.88 ± 2.76 mm/7hrs, 1.32 ± 0.37 %, 6.00± 0.34 g/dl, 2.10 ± 0.26 g/dl, 3.61 ± 0.42 g/dl, 60.36 ± 15.04 mg/dl, 46.69 ± 11.81 mg/dl and 41.75 ± 9.84 mg/dl, respectively. There were a highly significant PCV, HB, ESR, N/L and BU with the lowest Albumin (p<0.05) in Karadi breed when you compared to others. While Naimy sheep were recorded significantly the highest GLU (p<0.001) than both breeds, but TP and GLO in the last breed were the lower than Karadi breed significantly (p<0.01) and (p<0.001), respectively. Cholesterol was lower significantly (p<0.001) in Awassi breed when compared with Karadi. Also there were significantly higher ESR, N/L (p<0.001) and GLU (p<0.05) with the lowest PCV, HB (p<0.01) in Adults sheep. In this study there is a non-significant differences of sex of animal for all studied traits with exception of N/L ratio, (female > Male) (p<0.01), But these parameters were remained within the normal ranges for healthy sheep. Key words: Hematological, Biochemical Parameters, Breed, Age, Sex, Sheep. Introduction Sheep are and will always be the most important farm animals in Kurdistan region of Iraq. Base on the FAO report, sheep population of Iraq in 1999 was about six-million head (FAO, 2000), and is distributed all over the country. Karadi, Awassi and Naimy are the main native breeds of sheep in Iraq are; which all belong to the fat tailed carpet wool sheep (Majid et al, 2003). Karadi (Kurdi) sheep, which live in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, are considered to be the largest size of local breeds. They represent about 20% of the total sheep population of the country (Juma & Alkass, 2000). The Awassi and Naimy sheep are the main indigenous breeds and it’s raised primarily for lamb and mutton production, these sheep are represents an important contribution of sheep breeds in Iraq (about 60% of total sheep population, Juma & Alkass, 2000). The traits which are most important for genetic improvement whose associated with reproduction and wool production of the ewe, survival, growth and carcass characteristics of the lamb (Alkass and Juma, 2005). The productivity and reproductive efficiency of animal was correlated with the blood parameters (Abdel-Fattah et al., 2013) and these values were affected by the internal and external environment (Awah and Nottidge, 1998 and Ariyibi et al, 2002). Fat-tailed sheep are more adaptable to the harsh environmental conditions and also resistance to common diseases, while their