Urinary monitoring of adrenal responses to psychological stressors in domestic and nondomestic felids

Abstract

The potential of assessing adrenal responses to psychological stressors through the radioimmunoassay of free cortisol in urine was examined in the domestic cat (Felis catus) and in three nondomestic felid species (Felis geoffroyi, Felis bengalensis, and Felis concolor). To determine the approximate clearance rate of an acute increase in glucocorticoid secretion, serial plasma and bladder urine samples were collected from eight domestic cats after a 0.125 mg adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge. Within 30 min of administration, mean serum cortisol concentrations increased tenfold. Urinary cortisol concentrations increased twofold by 2 hr post-ACTH and were correlated with the serum responses. Also, 16 domestic cats were anesthetized, injected with 0.125 mg ACTH, and serially bled for 3 hr. All urine was collected for 24 hr post-ACTH. Urinary cortisol concentrations were significantly elevated compared to pretreatment concentrations and were correlated to the serum cortisol response (net area under the response curve). In another experiment, urine was collected daily for a 7-day baseline period from 16 domestic cats housed in standard laboratory cages. Subsequently, 8 cats were subjected to 8 consecutive days of "stress," consisting of relocation, physical restraint, and jugular venipuncture. The other 8 cats were neither moved, nor handled, nor bled for the same period of time. Two patterns of response were observed among the "stressed" cats: urinary cortisol concentrations either increased or decreased between baseline and treatment periods. These response profiles differed from those of controls, which remained basal and unchanged over time. A fourth experiment involved relocating a female Geoffroy's cat, 4 leopard cats, and 2 pumas to a novel environment for 8-10 days. Urinary cortisol concentrations rose on the first day of relocation and remained elevated above baseline for 5-7 days. Overall, these data suggest that adrenal responsiveness to psychological stressors in these four felid species can be assessed noninvasively by measuring coritsol in 24-hr urine samples. This research strategy may be useful for optimizing captive habitats to improve overall animal welfare and/or reproductive performance. 0 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Frustrated Appetitive Foraging Behavior, Stereotypic Pacing, and Fecal Glucocorticoid Levels in Snow Leopards (Uncia uncia) in the Zurich Zoo

“…However, the findings obtained remain inconclusive given that the small sample size and possible generalizations from our results are thus limited. Furthermore, marked interanimal differences in glucocorticoid levels, as also found in other studies on captive carnivores (Carlstead et al, 1992;Gusset, 2005;Wielebnowski, Fletchall, Carlstead, Busso, & Brown, 2002), may partly reflect the inherent variability of an individual's ability to cope with the captive environment. There are several mutually nonexclusive explanations for these findings.…”

“…This method was previously demonstrated to reflect individual adrenocortical responses to environmental changes in felids (Carlstead, Brown, Monfort, Killens, & Wildt, 1992;Carlstead, Brown, & Seidensticker, 1993;Carlstead, Brown, & Strawn, 1993). Always the freshest feces was collected and stored frozen at -20°C until processing and analysis.…”

Evidence for Chronic Stress in Captive but Not Free-Ranging Cheetahs (Acinonyx Jubatus) Based on Adrenal Morphology and Function

“…Because cheetahs tend to defecate once daily, prandial and diel affects on corticoid secretion are also not thought to have contributed to the observed individual variation (Terio et al, 1999). Considerable individual variation has been documented in other species (Baker et al, 1998) and may be related to social (Shively and Kaplan, 1984), as well as environmental (Carlstead et al, 1992(Carlstead et al, , 1993Wielebnowski et al, 2002), factors.…”

“…Elevated corticoid concentrations have been found in clouded leopards on public display compared with those maintained off exhibit (Wielebnowski et al, 2002). Captive black rhinoceroses with more public access had increased mortality from diseases, some of which are suspected to be stress related (Munson et al, 1998;Carlstead et al, 1999). Based on these results in cheetahs and findings in other species, a broader survey of baseline corticoid concentrations in species whose health is thought to be adversely affected by stress needs to be conducted between different management conditions.…”

Urinary cortisol as an additional tool to assess the welfare of pregnant sows kept in two types of housing

“…Cortisol is mainly excreted in urine and urinary cortisol (UC) has already been used to test the HPA axis in humans [24], bighorn sheep [23], felids [10] and mice [19]. In pigs, UC measured on spontaneously voided urine has been shown to be a good indicator of HPA axis activity [15][16][17].…”