Effects of sex, age, and season on the variation of blood analytes in a clinically healthyex situpopulation of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiopsspp.)

Abstract

Effects of gender, age, and season on the variation of blood analytes in a clinically healthy ex-situ population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.

The plasma phospholipidome of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is modulated by both sex and developmental stage

“…This is the first work looking into how cetacean plasma polar lipid content is modulated by sex and developmental stage. Several studies have proposed general metabolic changes in T. truncatus metabolism taking place with sex and age 39,40,[45][46][47][48] but this is the first insight into plasma lipid regulation by individual features. Each experimental group (female immature, female adults, male immature and male adults) was shown to display underlined characteristics that made them unique and easily distinguishable from the others in terms of fatty acid and polar lipid compositions (Fig.…”

“…[45][46][47] Another recent study involving an impressive number of specimens and samples confirmed this influence and identified numerous effects of age and sex on the concentration of several analytes in the plasma of T. truncatus. 48 This study, comprising 1426 blood samples collected from 156 different dolphins, measured 37 analytes in each sample. Mean platelet volume, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, globulins, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity and chloride, which increase with age, while absolute lymphocytes, total protein, alkaline phosphatase activity, creatinine kinase activity, and calcium, all decreased with age.…”

“…[42][43][44] Moreover, several other studies reported the impact of age and sex in the haematological parameters. [45][46][47][48] Therefore, we anticipated that the unique lipid metabolism of these cetaceans and plasma lipid composition, could also be modulated by both sex and developmental stage. In a previous work, we characterized the lipid content in the plasma of mature male specimens of T. truncatus using a lipidomics approach.…”

Characterisation of Plasmatic B-Esterases in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) and Their Potential as Biomarkers of Xenobiotic Chemical Exposures

“…The routine biochemical and endocrine data indicated a good health and reproductive condition of the selected individuals. More comprehensive, larger sample size studies on health assessment parameters in relation to season, sex and age for this dolphin species have already been published (Bergfelt et al, 2020;Lauderdale et al, 2021;Nollens et al, 2020) and are not the main objective of the present study.…”

Increasing the Awareness of Animal Welfare Science in Marine Mammal Conservation: Addressing Language, Translation and Reception Issues

“…Studies on marine mammal welfare in captivity have been increasing over the last 10 years [77,78], and using dolphins as an example, there is now existing research on positive welfare indicators [79][80][81][82][83][84], negative welfare indicators [82,[85][86][87], and a comprehensive assessment framework [88]. Physiological and health-related welfare parameters such as stress hormones [86,89,90], blood profiles [91,92], and pulmonary function [93] have also been examined in captive animals. The controlled environment of the captive setting has also aided in the development of certain hydrophone-video arrays aiming to match cetacean vocalisations to behaviours, thereby decoding their meaning, which would be a critical step in evaluating cetacean welfare [94,95].…”