Hair or salivary cortisol analysis to identify chronic stress in piglets?

Publication date: Available online 17 August 2019Source: The Veterinary JournalAuthor(s): S. Prims, C. Van den Hole, S. Van Cruchten, C. Van Ginneken, X. Van Ostade, C. CasteleynAbstractHair cortisol might better represent chronic stress than salivary cortisol in piglets. To test this hypothesis, 24 female, 7-day old piglets were allocated to two groups and artificially reared. The piglets in the stressed group were exposed to overcrowding (0.10 m2/piglet) and frequent mixing with unfamiliar piglets until the age of 28 days. The control group remained in an unchanging group at a density of 0.29 m2/piglet. After 3 weeks, stressed animals had gained significantly less weight (median, here and throughout, 7.58 kg) than the control animals (6.43 kg; P = 0.021). Additionally, hair from the stressed group contained significantly higher cortisol concentrations (87.29 vs. 75.60 pg/mg hair; P = 0.005), whereas salivary cortisol concentrations did not significantly differ between groups (0.30 vs. 0.25 µg/dL saliva; P = 0.447). Weight gain and hair cortisol concentrations were significantly correlated (P = 0.036, r = −0.430), but neither of these parameters were correlated with salivary cortisol concentrations (P = 0.929, r = 0.019 and P = 0.904, r = 0.026, respectively).Graphical abstract
Source: The Veterinary Journal - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research