Hair Cortisol in Sheltered Cows and Its Association with Other Welfare Indicators

Animals

Arvind Sharma¹  CliveJ. C. Phillips¹  Govindhaswamy Umapathy²  Vinod Kumar² 

[1] Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics, School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton Campus, Gatton QLD 4343, Australia;Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad 500007, India;

关键词: hair cortisol;    cows;    shelters;    welfare;    measures;    resources;    indicators;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ani9050248

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

India, the country with the largest population of dairy cows in the world, has a policy of retiring abandoned and non-lactating cows in shelters, but the level of provision for their welfare in these shelters is unclear. Cows in 54 shelters across India were assessed for historic evidence of physiological stress, through determination of hair cortisol in 540 samples from 10 cows in each shelter by enzyme immunoassay. Animal-based and shelter resource-based welfare measures were recorded and correlations with the hair cortisol investigated by multivariable analysis. High hair cortisol concentrations were associated with dung in the lying area of the cowshed, a low dry bulb temperature there and little cow access to yards, as shelter-based variables. At a cow level, high hair cortisol concentrations were associated with dirty flanks, hock joint ulceration, carpal joint injuries, body lesions, dehydration, an empty rumen, old age, and low levels of body hair loss. Hair cortisol level promises to be an effective biomarker of stress in cows when conducting studies under field conditions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown