Age, sex and storage time influence hair cortisol levels in a wild mammal population

Azevedo, Alexandre F.; Bailey, Liam D.; Bandeira, Victor; Dehnhard, Martin; Fonseca, Carlos; Sousa, Liliana de; Jewgenow, Katarina

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221124

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…This result is in contrast to findings by González de la Vara et al, who didn’t observe difference in cortisol concentrations between hair samples stored for 30 days at room temperature and hair samples stored for 12 months [ 49 ]. Others, however, also found an effect of storage time [ 50 , 51 ]. Abell et al [ 50 ] stored their samples for more than 18 or 24 months before assay.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms

Eerdenburg

Hof

Doeve

et al. 2021

Animals

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Many protocols have been developed to assess farm animal welfare. However, the validity of these protocols is still subject to debate. The present study aimed to compare nine welfare assessment protocols, namely: (1) Welfare Quality© (WQ), (2) a modified version of Welfare Quality (WQ Mod), which has a better discriminative power, (3) WelzijnsWijzer (Welfare Indicator; WW), (4) a new Welfare Monitor (WM), (5) Continue Welzijns Monitor (Continuous Welfare Monitor; CWM), (6) KoeKompas (Cow Compass; KK), (7) Cow Comfort Scoring System (CCSS), (8) Stall Standing Index (SSI) and (9) a Welfare Index (WI Tuyttens). In addition, a simple welfare estimation by veterinarians (Estimate vets, EV) was added. Rank correlation coefficients were calculated between each of the welfare assessment protocol scores and mean hair cortisol concentrations from 10 cows at 58 dairy farms spread over the Netherlands. Because it has been suggested that the hair cortisol level is related to stress, experienced over a long period of time, we expected a negative correlation between cortisol and the result of the welfare protocol scores. Only the simple welfare estimation by veterinarians (EV) (ρ = −0.28) had a poor, but significant, negative correlation with hair cortisol. This correlations, however, failed to reach significance after correction of p-values for multiple correlations. Most of the results of the different welfare assessment protocols had a poor, fair or strong positive correlation with each other, supporting the notion that they measure something similar. Additional analyses revealed that the modified Welfare Quality protocol parameters housing (ρ = −0.30), the new Welfare Monitor (WM) parameter health (ρ = −0.33), and milk yield (ρ = −0.33) showed negative correlations with cortisol. We conclude that because only five out of all the parameter scores from the welfare assessment protocols showed a negative, albeit weak, correlation with cortisol, hair cortisol levels may not provide a long term indicator for stress in dairy cattle, or alternatively, that the protocols might not yield valid indices for cow welfare.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms

Eerdenburg

Hof

Doeve

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…Glucocorticoid levels can fluctuate in mammal species depending on age, sex and season. Based on our previous work with the Egyptian mongoose ( Azevedo et al ., 2019 ), we expected hGC measured with cortisol-3CMO-EIA to be higher in young juveniles and in males, when compared to other age-sex groups. The conflicting results we observe for young Iberian lynx are probably due to the fact that all juveniles in our sample are older than 6 months of age and beyond the post-weaning phase where increased levels of hGC were observed in the mongoose.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hair was cut into 5 mm pieces, mixed and an aliquot of 20 mg separated and washed twice with 2 ml of 90% methanol by vortexing for 5–10 s to remove surface contamination. Thereafter, the samples were dried for 1 h at 70 C and aliquots (~10 mg) from selected Iberian lynx ( n = 93) were taken and milled to a fine powder with ceramic beads in a tissue homogenizer as described before ( Azevedo et al ., 2019 ). Then 400 μl of 90% methanol were added to the powder and shaken at room temperature for 30 min.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the hair extracts of 93 lynxes, aliquots of 460 μl were taken corresponding to ~530 mg of hairs and pooled before purification on Octadecyl C18 columns (0.5 ml, J.T. Baker, BAKERBOND SPE™ 7020-01) as previously described ( Azevedo et al ., 2019 ). Eluates were evaporated in a heater at 55 C under nitrogen and dissolved in 200 μl of 40% methanol.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex steroids and glucocorticoid ratios in Iberian lynx hair

Azevedo

Wauters

Kirschbaum

et al. 2020

Conservation Physiology

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Knowledge on species’ reproductive biology is a fundamental pre-requisite of every conservation effort, but is often lacking. Sex steroids can provide valuable information for the assessment of reproductive success, whereas glucocorticoids are used to assess adrenocortical activity and stress-related bodily adaption. However, due to their perilous condition, access to animals is often difficult, which makes hormone measurement in non-invasively collected hair samples an attractive option. We determined cortisol, cortisone, corticosterone, testosterone and progesterone in Iberian lynx hair using enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Cross-validation was performed with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Finally, we statistically evaluated the variations of sex steroids and glucocorticoids according to age, sex, origin, behavior and management. All steroids except corticosterone were detectable in Iberian lynx hair. Hair progesterone measured by EIA was overestimated by cross-reaction with 5α-dihydroprogesterone, a biologically active gestagene, and was highly correlated with HPLC-MS/MS results. Progesterone was higher in adult females compared to all other age-sex groups. Cortisol measured by EIA was overestimated due to antibody cross-reactivity with cortisone and was correlated to the sum of HPLC-MS/MS measurements for cortisol and cortisone. Cortisol was higher in females than in males measured by HPLC-MS/MS, but the EIA results were confounded by the lack of specificity. When using cortisol-cortisone and cortisol-dihydroepiandrosterone ratios, differences were noted between wild-caught and captive-bred lynxes. Additionally, longitudinal EIA measurements of an Iberian lynx after a wildfire showed an inversion of the cortisol-cortisone ratio that later subsided. These results validate the use of hair progesterone measurement for Iberian lynx reproductive monitoring and add to the growing evidence supporting the need for a more comprehensive approach to hair steroid measurement that accounts for local interconversion and co-regulation mechanisms.

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“…Hair cortisol and its correlation with natural and anthropogenic stressors has been explored for different wild mammals, including rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta ; Dettmer et al, 2012), grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos ; Macbeth et al, 2010), reindeer/caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ; Ashley et al, 2011), lynx ( Lynx canadensis ; Terwissen et al , 2013), mongoose ( Herpestes ichneumon ; Azevedo et al , 2019), and snowshoe hares ( Lepus americanus ; Lavergne et al , 2020). Although most of these studies support hair cortisol as an informative measure of central HPA activity, they also identified intrinsic factors such as age, sex, reproductive stage, and social status that modulate GCs levels in different contexts (Wingfield and Romero, 2011; Crespi et al , 2013; Hau et al , 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter- and intra-specific variation in hair cortisol concentrations of Neotropical bats

Sandoval-Herrera

Mastromonaco

Becker

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Quantifying hair cortisol has become popular in wildlife ecology for its practical advantages for evaluating health. Before hair cortisol levels can be reliably interpreted however, it is key to first understand the intrinsic factors explaining intra- and interspecific variation. Bats are an ecologically diverse group of mammals that allow studying such variation. Given that many bat species are threatened or have declining populations in parts of their range, non-invasive tools for monitoring colony health and identifying cryptic stressors are needed to efficiently direct conservation efforts. Here we describe intra- and interspecific sources of variation in hair cortisol levels in 18 Neotropical bat species from Mexico and Belize. We found that fecundity is an important ecological trait explaining interspecific variation in bat hair cortisol. Other ecological variables such as colony size, roost durability, and basal metabolic rate did not explain hair cortisol variation among species. At the individual level, females exhibited higher hair cortisol levels than males, and the effect of body mass varied among species. Overall, our findings help validate and accurately apply hair cortisol as a monitoring tool in free-ranging bats.

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Age, sex and storage time influence hair cortisol levels in a wild mammal population

Cited by 25 publications

References 70 publications

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms

Sex steroids and glucocorticoid ratios in Iberian lynx hair

Inter- and intra-specific variation in hair cortisol concentrations of Neotropical bats

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