Cortisol and DHEA concentrations in the hair of dairy cows managed indoor or on pasture

Peric, Tanja; Corazzin, Mirco; Romanzin, Alberto; Bovolenta, S.; Prandi, Alberto; Montillo, Marta; Comin, A.

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2017.05.020

Cited by 29 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Summary statistics for ABMo and ABMr are given in Table 2 and Table 3, respectively. In terms of body condition, no significant differences in the prevalence of lean cows were observed between assessments (BP, DP, and AP), similar to findings of Corazzin et al (2010) and Peric et al (2017) in transhumant systems in the Eastern Alps. In contrast, Burow et al (2013) reported an increased prevalence of very lean cows when animals were moved from winter indoor housing to summer pasture in Denmark.…”

Section: Animal-based Measuressupporting

confidence: 73%

A survey of selected animal-based measures of dairy cattle welfare in the Eastern Alps: Toward context-based thresholds

Zuliani

Mair

Kraševec

et al. 2018

Journal of Dairy Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Alps, traditional dairy farms are small-scale operations where vertical transhumance from valley indoor housing systems to highland pasture-based systems is still practiced in summer. Vertical transhumance implies a substantial change of environment, available resources, and management practices from one season to another. In such systems, animal-based welfare measures need to be monitored throughout the year to capture the variation of welfare outcomes, based on which targeted welfare management plans can be implemented. Because the Welfare Quality assessment approach has been tailored to indoor housing and intensive farming systems, the European Food Safety Authority recently developed a welfare assessment protocol for small-scale dairy cattle farms adapted after the Welfare Quality framework. The aim of this study was to assess nonbehavioral animal-based measures as defined by this protocol at different time points for transhumant systems in the Alps. In total, 18 animal-based measures were assessed before, during, and after the mountain pasture period in a sample of 67 small-scale dairy cattle farms practicing vertical transhumance in neighboring provinces of Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. Significant differences between assessments were identified for dirtiness of legs and teats, hairless patches, lesions and swellings, claw condition, ocular discharge, and diarrhea whereas BCS, lameness/severe lameness, vulvar discharge, nasal discharge, and hampered respiration were unchanged between seasons. In addition, a benchmarking exercise was carried out to identify relative boundaries (worst quartile thresholds) for each animal-based measure and to contribute to the discussion about achievable welfare outcomes for the 2 husbandry conditions that characterize a transhumant system. Worst quartile thresholds indicated a high prevalence of dirtiness (>80%) when cows were kept indoors, high prevalence of hairless patches (65%) before pasture turnout, and high prevalence of very lean cows (>13%) throughout the assessments. On the other hand, the best quartile thresholds for most clinical conditions suggested that high welfare standards (zero prevalence) are widely achievable in mountain farms practicing vertical transhumance during all assessments. The thresholds identified through benchmarking should serve as the basis for an effective context-based welfare management strategy promoting continuous welfare improvement on-farm.

show abstract

Section: Animal-based Measuressupporting

confidence: 73%

A survey of selected animal-based measures of dairy cattle welfare in the Eastern Alps: Toward context-based thresholds

Zuliani

Mair

Kraševec

et al. 2018

Journal of Dairy Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the next step, 169 articles were considered for full-text reading and 52 papers (i.e., 38 on cattle and 14 on small ruminants) matched all the inclusion criteria ( Figure 1). Despite the large number of papers retrieved at first screening, several were excluded from the analysis because they were assessing welfare before and/or after outdoor access [20,21], or because they were based on the collection of biological samples such as hair [22], blood [23], milk [24] and feces [25] and thus required the use of analytical methods to define the welfare status of animals on pasture. While such ABMs also allow the collection of relevant information on animal welfare on pasture, they were not, strictly speaking, measured on pasture.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare Assessment on Pasture: A Review on Animal-Based Measures for Ruminants

Spigarelli

Zuliani

Battini

et al. 2020

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Outdoor and extensive farming systems allow animals to behave in a natural way and are often perceived as welfare friendly. Nonetheless, the natural environment poses multiple challenges to the welfare of animals, sometimes hampering their capacity to cope. Welfare assessment in outdoor and extensive systems has been rarely investigated, and little is known about the most appropriate indicators. The aim of this review was to identify animal-based measures of welfare to apply in extensive and pasture-based systems in domestic ruminants. Through the use of a dedicated software for systematic reviews, 810 papers were screened and a total of 52 papers were retained for in-depth analysis. ABM resulting from these papers were initially divided according to the species (cattle and small ruminants, including sheep and goats) and then to four principles: comfort, behavior, feeding and health. The results showed that welfare data were collected applying different methodologies, with an increasing use of sensors in recent years. The need to herd and restrain animals for individual data collection is one of the major constraints to data collection in extensive farming systems. It is suggested that welfare assessment in outdoor/extensive farming systems is carried out by following shared procedures in order to provide evidence of the higher animal welfare claims that these products often imply compared to indoor systems.

show abstract

“…To date, many studies have reported the determination of the hormonal concentration of cortisol in human hair (Meyer and Novak 2012;Stalder and Kirschbaum 2012), that of domestic animals, e.g., dogs, cats and cows (Accorsi et al 2008;Galuppi et al 2013;Cobb doi: 10.17221/19/2017-VETMED et al 2016Peric et al 2017) and in the hair of wild animals such as squirrels, chimpanzees and bears (Bechshoft et al 2011;Mastromonaco et al 2014;Yamanashi et al 2016). This paper is a summary and overview of the current scientific knowledge concerning cortisol determination in hair obtained from dogs, the factors affecting it, the methods used in the detection and the possible applications of this knowledge in practice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Mesarčová¹,

Kottferová²,

Skurková³

et al. 2017

Vet. Med. - Czech

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Cortisol and DHEA concentrations in the hair of dairy cows managed indoor or on pasture

Cited by 29 publications

References 41 publications

A survey of selected animal-based measures of dairy cattle welfare in the Eastern Alps: Toward context-based thresholds

A survey of selected animal-based measures of dairy cattle welfare in the Eastern Alps: Toward context-based thresholds

Welfare Assessment on Pasture: A Review on Animal-Based Measures for Ruminants

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About