Assessment of faecal glucocorticoid metabolite excretion in captive female fishing cats (Prionailurus viverinus) in Thailand

Abstract

Assessment of fecal glucocorticoid metabolite excretion in captive female fishing cats (Prionailurus viverinus) in Thailand

Effect of Artificial Piglet Suckling Sounds on Behavior and Performance of Piglets and Adrenal Responses of Sows

“…All chemicals were obtained from the Sigma Chemical Company (St. Louis, MO) unless otherwise stated. Following the protocol of Khonmee et al [ 16 ], wet fecal samples were dried in a conventional oven at 60°C for 24 hours and stored at -20°C until extraction. Frozen dried fecal samples were thawed at room temperature, mixed well, and pulverized, and (0.2 ± 0.01) g was boiled in 5 ml of 90% ethanol:distilled water for 20 min [ 16 ] After centrifugation at 3500 × g (20 min), the supernatant was recovered and the pellet resuspended in 5 ml of 90% ethanol:distilled water, vortexed for 1 min, and recentrifuged (3500 × g, 20 min) [ 16 ].…”

“…Following the protocol of Khonmee et al [ 16 ], wet fecal samples were dried in a conventional oven at 60°C for 24 hours and stored at -20°C until extraction. Frozen dried fecal samples were thawed at room temperature, mixed well, and pulverized, and (0.2 ± 0.01) g was boiled in 5 ml of 90% ethanol:distilled water for 20 min [ 16 ] After centrifugation at 3500 × g (20 min), the supernatant was recovered and the pellet resuspended in 5 ml of 90% ethanol:distilled water, vortexed for 1 min, and recentrifuged (3500 × g, 20 min) [ 16 ]. The extraction was performed twice and the two supernatants were combined, dried down under air in a warm water bath (50°C), and reconstituted in 1 ml dilution buffer (0.1 M NaPO4, 0.149 M NaCl, pH 7.0) [ 16 ].…”

Longitudinal fecal hormone monitoring of adrenocortical function in zoo housed fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) during institutional transfers and breeding introductions

“…Significant peaks were then considered to be any samples above 2.5 SD of the mean baseline. A higher SD was chosen in order to account for any slight seasonal effects that may be seen in this species [7] as animal subjects were housed throughout the United States with variable climate and different exposure to the outdoors. Baseline measures were calculated for two separate time periods during each study year for each cat, including: 1) Preship-transferred cats = the month prior to shipment; stationary (non-transferred cats) = the month prior to the transferred cat's release from quarantine; 2) Post-release-after quarantine release, for up to one year, for both transferred and stationary cats.…”

“…Stressful events can be measured as fluctuations in adrenal hormones-specifically glucocorticoids-that are regulated by the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Noninvasive monitoring of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) is one effective way of assessing adrenal activity in captive felid species [7][8][9][10]. Increased glucocorticoids have been shown to have a direct effect on reproduction in mammals by interrupting the normal function of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis [11][12][13].…”

“…Glucocorticoid responses to ACTH also can also help determine variation in excretory patterns due to sex, age or species-specific metabolism [16]. ACTH challenges have been conducted on several felid species to validate immunoassay procedures, including the cheetah [9,17,18], clouded leopard [6], ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) [19], oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus) and margay (Leoparadus wiedi) [20], jaguar (Panthera onca) [15], canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis) [21] and fishing cat [7].…”