Urinary Reference Values and First Insight into the Urinary Proteome of Captive Giraffes

A simple urine strip can give a misleading reading in giraffes. Some samples from healthy-looking animals tested positive for protein on a dipstick, yet more precise measurements did not support unusually high protein loss. Before urine can help diagnose a problem, veterinarians need to know what is ordinary for a giraffe and which tests to trust.

Sabrina Fasoli, Giulia Andreani and colleagues collected 103 urine samples from 44 giraffes at four Italian zoos. They gathered fresh urine after the animals urinated naturally, avoiding restraint. Alongside routine tests, they measured protein and creatinine, a waste product used to account for urine concentration, and identified proteins in selected samples using mass spectrometry.

Quantitative measurements showed generally low protein levels, similar to those of other healthy ruminants. The authors suggested that alkaline urine and the collection method could explain misleading dipstick positives. They also identified 15 proteins, including several associated with defence against microbes, although their protective role in giraffes was not tested. The resulting reference ranges came from captive animals judged clinically healthy, not a comparison of healthy and diseased kidneys. They provide a necessary baseline: an unusual test result becomes useful only when it can be distinguished from normal giraffe biology.