A systematic review and meta-analysis of salivary cortisol measurement in domestic canines

Assessing the welfare of kennelled dogs—A review of animal-based measures

“…To complicate matters further, there are also some studies which have found that cortisol levels decrease to significantly lower than baseline in kennels. The same meta-analysis of over 30 studies found that dogs that have been living in rescue shelters for over two weeks had significantly lower salivary cortisol levels than dogs in working/ training kennels or private homes (Cobb et al, 2016). Gaines and Rooney (unpublished data 2007;as cited in Hewson et al, 2007) also found that dogs that had been kennelled for more than one year had urinary cortisol levels that were below the levels of dogs in homes.…”

“…Beerda et al (2000) found that dogs housed in the most severe living conditions tended to have higher urinary cortisol levels than dogs housed in more enriched environments even after being kept in those conditions for multiple years. A meta-analysis of 31 studies found no difference between the salivary cortisol levels of dogs living in shelters for less than two weeks compared to more than two weeks (Cobb et al, 2016).…”

“…No -only indicates arousal Sampling procedure as well as diurnal patterns, temperature, activity levels may confound results Vincent and Michell, 1992;Beerda et al, 1996Beerda et al, , 1999bHiby et al, 2006;Part et al, 2014;Cobb et al, 2016 Cortisol -plasma Requires skill to obtain. Expensive to analyse.…”

“…Polgár, et al Applied Animal Behaviour Science 213 (2019) 1-13 neuter status, time of day, etc. -see: Cobb et al, 2016 andMormède et al, 2007); the limited understanding of when and how dysregulation of the system occurs; the lack of correlation with behavioural measures; and the fact that levels increase in response to arousal regardless of its valence, it is not currently possible to determine such a cut-off value for unacceptable welfare. These factors also suggest that the measures of cortisol that have been used thus far are unlikely to be the most reliable measures of distress in kennelled dogs, particularly for those kennelled long-term.…”

Validation of Salivary Oxytocin and Vasopressin as Biomarkers in Domestic Dogs

“…To our knowledge there have been no studies evaluating the feasibility of measuring of OT or AVP in dog saliva. However, given that dog salivary samples are commonly used for the measurement of other hormones, such as cortisol or testosterone (Cobb, Iskandarani, Chinchilli, & Dreschel, 2016;Dreschel & Granger, 2016), validated methods for measuring OT and AVP in dog saliva could provide a versatile and noninvasive approach for future research on the roles of OT and AVP in dog behavior and cognition, as well as dog-human interaction. Here, we report a series of studies investigating the potential of OT and AVP as salivary biomarkers in dogs.…”