Studies indicate that the evaluation of animal welfare in birds may be carried out with the measurement of the stress-related hormone corticosterone in feathers. However a standardized procedure for corticosterone measurements in feathers is lacking, a validation needs to be carried out for each new species before implementation. The aim of the present study was to establish a valid method to measure corticosterone concentrations in feathers of laying hens in a precise and repeatable manner using an established and commercially available ELISA. Validation was performed with feather pools of tail and interscapular feathers of commercial Lohmann Brown laying hens. Assessment groups, consisting of 5 replicates, were created. All replicates of an assessment group were processed at the same time. Each replicate was run in 4 repetitions by ELISA. Intra-assay and interassay CV was 7.5 and 6.4%, respectively. The serial dilution showed linearity and parallelism. Examining the hormone extraction efficiency by using different methanol volumes resulted in no statistical differences (P > 0.05). Pulverized feathers showed higher corticosterone values than minced feathers (P > 0.05). Differences were shown between 2 feather types (tail vs. interscapular feathers; P < 0.05), as well as between vane and rachis (P < 0.05). Performance of a freeze–thaw cycle led to a decrease of corticosterone concentrations in the samples. A possible effect of UV-A radiation on the stability of corticosterone in the feathers was not found (P > 0.05). With the present study, a valid protocol, feasible for analyzing feather pools of laying hens, was developed. It may provide fundamentals for further investigations on corticosterone in feathers as a noninvasive indicator to evaluate aspects of animal welfare.
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机译:研究表明,鸟类中动物福利的评价可以通过测量羽毛中的应力相关激素皮质酮进行。然而,缺乏羽毛皮质酮测量的标准化程序,在实施之前需要对每种新物种进行验证。本研究的目的是建立一种有效的方法,以使用建立的和市售的ELISA以精确和可重复的方式测量母猪羽毛中的皮质酮浓度。验证是用尾部的羽毛池和商用Lohmann Brown铺设母鸡的羽毛池进行验证。创建由5个重复组成的评估组。评估组的所有重复都同时处理。每个复制都是由ELISA重复的4个重复。测定内和茚或间Cv分别为7.5和6.4%。连续稀释显示线性和平行度。通过使用不同的甲醇体积来检查激素提取效率导致无统计差异(P> 0.05)。粉碎的羽毛显示出比碎羽的皮质酮值更高(P> 0.05)。 2羽型(尾部与间隙羽毛; P <0.05)以及叶片和rachis之间显示差异(P <0.05)。冻融周期的性能导致样品中皮质酮浓度的降低。未发现UV-A辐射对羽毛中皮质酮稳定性的影响(p> 0.05)。通过本研究,开发了一种有效的协议,可用于分析婴儿母鸡的羽毛池。它可以为进一步调查羽毛皮质酮作为非侵入性指标提供基础,以评估动物福利的方面。
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