The use of hair cortisol for the assessment of stress in animals

Heimbürge, Susen; Kanitz, Ellen; Otten, Winfried

doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2018.09.016

Cited by 217 publications

(257 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…When compared to progesterone, cortisol is overall more influenced by the conditions in which the animals live [15]. Blood cortisol levels change quickly throughout the day and are therefore relatively unreliable, but quantification in matrices such as feces and hair seems to be a good indicator of chronic stress, potentially also related to the reproductive status of the animal [16,23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In mammals, many other hormones undergo changes in blood concentration during the period of pregnancy, but how these relate to reproductive processes and their effects are poorly understood in wildlife. Cortisol (CORT) is another important hormone, generally used as stress marker also in wild animals [15], but the evaluation of its plasma concentrations is considered as poorly reliable since the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is instantaneously activated upon stressful stimuli, such as restraint and blood sampling [16]. This is partially why, in the last years, alternative matrices for hormones' and other analytes' quantification have been proposed, including hair and feces, capable of providing different information regarding a longer timespan [17][18][19], also in red deer [20,21] and other frequently hunted ungulates [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Progesterone and Cortisol Levels in Blood and Hair of Wild Pregnant Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) Hinds

Ventrella

Elmi

Bertocchi

et al. 2020

Animals

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The red deer (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) is one of the largest deer species in the world. Females are seasonal polyestrous, with negative photoperiod: the increase of the night peak of melatonin determines the secretion of GnRH and, therefore, LH and FSH. To date there is little information regarding the hormonal control during pregnancy for this species; this could be due to the difficulty of sampling wild subjects, while farmed animals’ hormonal concentrations may not reflect the physiology of the animal in a natural state. In this study we evaluated the concentration of cortisol and progesterone, extracted from blood and hair, on 10 wild and pregnant red deer females. Belonging to the population of the Bolognese Apennines (Italy), the hinds were sampled in the January–March 2018 period, according to the regional selective hunting plan. Plasma progesterone (P4) ranged from a minimum of 1.9 to a maximum of 7.48 ng/mL; while hair P4 concentrations varied from 41.68 to 153.57 pg/mg. The plasma and hair cortisol ranges are respectively 0.4–2.97 ng/mL and 0.03–0.55 pg/mg; the only significant correlation was found between hair concentration of P4 and the date of death. The results of this preliminary study represent a small step towards a better knowledge of this species’ physiology during pregnancy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progesterone and Cortisol Levels in Blood and Hair of Wild Pregnant Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) Hinds

Ventrella

Elmi

Bertocchi

et al. 2020

Animals

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“…Hair with no visible blood, urine or mud contamination were plucked from the rump and/or shoulder and faecal samples were taken directly from the rectum. Although rump and shoulder hair in mountain goats grow during the same period and have similar length and thickness, differences in sample's body location could have increased HCC variability in our study (Heimbürge, Kanitz, & Otten, ). On goats captured after the onset of moult, patches of short newly grown hair were avoided.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…One major strength of our study is that we accounted for many covariates known to affect glucocorticoid concentrations (Dantzer, Fletcher, Boonstra, & Sheriff, ; Heimbürge et al, ; Millspaugh & Washburn, ). These covariates are rarely considered in studies on wild populations because they are often unavailable (Dantzer et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our results were consistent whether they were based on faeces or hair samples, but relationships obtained from hair samples were inconclusive. Although the use of hair samples is becoming increasingly popular in animal stress and welfare research (Heimbürge et al, ), there are still many unresolved questions regarding the source of confounding variation for this matrix in natural settings (Heimbürge et al, ; Koren et al, ). We showed previously that hair cortisol concentration can reliably detect 5 weeks of increased systemic HPA‐axis activity in captive mountain goats kept in ideal conditions (Dulude‐de Broin, Côté, et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predation risk and mountain goat reproduction: Evidence for stress‐induced breeding suppression in a wild ungulate

et al. 2020

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1. Non-consumptive effects of predation can strongly impact reproduction and demography of prey species. Still, the underlying mechanisms that drive non-consumptive effects are not fully understood, and the circumstances under which chronic physiological stress may mediate these effects remain unclear.2. Benefiting from over 23 years of environmental, physiological and demographic data, we tested the hypothesis that predation risk may impair reproduction of mountain goats through chronic elevation of physiological stress. We conducted path analyses to assess the relationships between predation risk, faecal glucocorticoid metabolites and hair cortisol concentration, and reproduction, while taking into account the potential effects of age class, sex, body mass, season and within individual variation in glucocorticoid concentration.3. Predation risk had a direct positive effect on the average annual faecal glucocorticoid concentration in the population, which, in turn, negatively affected the proportion of reproductive females. The same pattern was observed with hair cortisol concentration, but these results were inconclusive potentially due to methodological challenges in estimating annual average of hair cortisol at the population level. 4. Our study presents one of the first robust evidence that stress-mediated breeding suppression can occur in a wild ungulate following increased predation risk, thereby providing a major insight on the mechanisms underlying non-consumptive effects of predation in wild mammals. K E Y W O R D Santi-predator behaviour, glucocorticoids, mountain goat, non-consumptive effects, predatorprey, reproductive success, risk effects, stress 1004 |

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Cortisol levels across the lifespan in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

Lopez,

Seidl,

Phillips

2024

American J Primatol

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Human aging is associated with senescence of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to progressive dysregulation characterized by increased cortisol exposure. This key hormone is implicated in the pathogenesis of many age‐related diseases. Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) display a wide spectrum of naturally occurring age‐related pathologies that compare similarly to humans and are increasingly used as translational models of aging and age‐related disease. Whether the marmoset HPA axis also shows senescence with increasing age is unknown. We analyzed hair cortisol concentration (HCC) across the lifespan of 50 captive common marmosets, ranging in age from approximately 2 months–14.5 years, via a cross‐sectional design. Samples were processed and analyzed for cortisol using enzyme immunoassay. HCC ranged from 1416 to 15,343 pg/mg and was negatively correlated with age. We found significant main effects of age group (infant, adolescent, adult, aged, very aged) and sex on HCC, and no interaction effects. Infants had significantly higher levels of HCC compared with all other age groups. Females had higher HCC than males. There was no interaction between age and sex. These results suggest marmosets do not show dysregulation of the HPA axis with increasing age, as measured via HCC.

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The use of hair cortisol for the assessment of stress in animals

Cited by 217 publications

References 121 publications

Progesterone and Cortisol Levels in Blood and Hair of Wild Pregnant Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) Hinds

Progesterone and Cortisol Levels in Blood and Hair of Wild Pregnant Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) Hinds

Predation risk and mountain goat reproduction: Evidence for stress‐induced breeding suppression in a wild ungulate

Cortisol levels across the lifespan in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

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