Analysis of cortisol in dog hair - a potential biomarker of chronic stress: a review

Abstract

Cortisol, which is produced in the adrenal glands, is an endogenous glucocorticoid hormone that delivers its hormonal message to cells by acting on glucocorticoid receptors. It is one of the main stress hormones responsible for stress responses in animals and humans, and its overproduction is characteristic of certain diseases. While acute stress disorder can be evaluated by means of measuring the cortisol concentration in blood and urine, chronic stress disorder can be detected by monitoring the cortisol concentration in fur or hair. Hair collection is simple, inexpensive and non-invasive, and can be performed easily and rapidly; thus, it appears to be a suitable method for determining the level of stress in dogs from shelters, abused dogs or dogs involved in different types of animal interactions. Since it is a relatively new method, monitoring cortisol in hair or fur requires further research in order to definitively prove its efficacy, and possibly to determine reference range values for different breeds of dogs.

Infectious Causation of Abnormal Host Behavior: Toxoplasma gondii and Its Potential Association With Dopey Fox Syndrome

“…As chronic cortisol may be predicted to be an indicator of differential long-term anxiety profiles, we examined whether this phenomenon was observed in secondary fox hosts by detecting chronic stress levels through cortisol competitive immunoassays performed on fur samples (Salimetrics, #1-3002). Fur samples were chosen since it has been demonstrated that fur (and hair) reliably indicates long-term average cortisol levels, instead of providing a measure of acute stressors as do other samples including blood and saliva (84)(85)(86); the latter of which would be expected to be particularly biased since sampling methods for obtaining blood or saliva can stress the animal and lead to temporary cortisol release, independent of its longer term profile (87,88).…”

Multi-year patterns in testosterone, cortisol and corticosterone in baleen from adult males of three whale species

“…In mysticete whales, keratinous baleen plates are suspended from the upper jaw; these plates grow continuously at a species- and age-specific baleen growth rate (BGR), simultaneously wearing away steadily at the distal (lower) tip ( St. Aubin et al , 1984 ; Mitani et al , 2006 ; Lubetkin et al , 2008 , 2012 ; Lysiak et al , 2018 ; Ryan et al , 2013 ). Our recent studies indicate that all classes of steroid and thyroid hormones are detectable in baleen from at least eight species of mysticete whales ( Hunt et al , 2017b ), suggesting that hormones are routinely deposited in growing baleen much as they are in growing mammalian hair ( Meyer and Novak, 2012 ; Cattet et al , 2017 ; Mesarcova et al , 2017 ; Yamanashi, 2018 ). Further, the hormones appear to be deposited in linear fashion as the baleen grows, such that a complete baleen plate contains a continuous retrospective record of the whale’s endocrine history spanning the time period of baleen growth (a decade or more in right and bowhead whales, ~3–5 years in most other large mysticetes; St. Aubin et al , 1984 ; Mitani et al , 2006 ; Lubetkin et al , 2008 , 2012 ; Lysiak et al , 2018 ; Bentaleb et al , 2011 ; Ryan et al , 2013 ; Eisenmann et al , 2016 ; Busquets-Vass et al , 2017 ).…”

Methods of Assessment of the Welfare of Shelter Cats: A Review

“…However, there is evidence that some factors affect cortisol levels in fur -e.g., colour, which was confirmed in dogs [213]. Debatable factors may be, for example, sex, age, state of health and various areas of the body [204]. Accorsi et al [216] found a significant correlation between agonistic behaviour and the level of cortisol in the fur, suggesting that a greater amount is found in the fur of aggressive cats.…”

“…The area and size of the fur collection area vary across studies (in a study by Finkler and Terkel [194], cat fur was collected from a 5 × 5 cm sacral area with small surgical scissors). The advantage of using fur as a matrix is especially the ability to determine the time period in which stress occurred in the animal [204] and the possibility of rapid sampling from a larger number of animals, which is an advantage for animals in group housing. Another advantage is the fact that the stress caused by handling the animals during collection does not affect the concentration of cortisol in the collected fur [205].…”