What is it about?
Glucocortioids are often used as an indicator of stress and can be measured in various matrixes, traditionally from blood or plasma but also urine or faeces. However, using such alternative matrices requires validation. We show that these measurements differ substantially between the sexes and matrices and that faeces is not a good matrix in the study species, at least not for the assays used while urines produces measurable responses, irrespective of the intensity of the stressor.
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Why is it important?
For purposes of animal welfare and conservation it is often important to measure stress of animals as indicated by increases of glucocorticoids. As the collection of blood for the determination of hormone titers is stressful in itself, non-invasive matrices (e.g. urine or faeces) are preferable but there use needs to be validated for each species. We show that urine is a more reliable source of glucocorticoid measures but also that the excretion of these hormones may differ between the sexes.
Perspectives
I hope this article illustrates the importance of thoroughly validating alternative methods for non-model organisms and will allow monitoring of stressors for this and other species in the future.
Dr Heike Lutermann
University of Pretoria
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sex and dose-dependent responses of urinary and faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations following an ACTH challenge in eastern rock sengis (Elephantulus myurus), Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A Molecular & Integrative Physiology, July 2020, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2020.110696.
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