Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture (한국유기농업학회지)

Korean Association of Organic Agriculture (한국유기농업학회)
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Correlation Analysis between Blood and Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Hanwoo Due to Transportation

수송 스트레스 시 한우의 혈액 및 모발 코티솔 농도의 상관관계

  • Kim, Lee-Cheon (Department of Animal Biotechnology, Jeonbuk National University) ;
  • Shim, Kwan-Seob (Department of Animal Biotechnology, Jeonbuk National University) ;
  • Kang, Da-Rae (Department of Animal Biotechnology, Jeonbuk National University)
  • Received : 2023.10.31
  • Accepted : 2023.11.21
  • Published : 2023.11.30
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Abstract

Animal welfare has been gradually gathering more attention from consumers over time, making it increasingly important to assess the level of stress experienced by livestock. Traditionally, stress has been measured by collecting blood to assess cortisol levels, an action that can be considered distressing for the animal. Therefore, we aimed to explore the feasibility of using hair as an alternative medium to blood for stress assessment. We utilized B/F (blood collected at the farm), B/A (blood collected after transport to the auction), and H/A (hair collected at the auction after blood sampling) from calves at the age of 7-9 months transported from the farm to the auction. Hair underwent a washing and extraction process to utilize hair extracts, while blood was centrifuged to analyze using ELISA. The cortisol concentration in the blood was significantly higher in B/A compared to B/F (p<0.05), confirming that the calves experienced stress during transportation. Additionally, H/A was significantly lower than both B/A and B/F (p<0.0001). These results emphasized that cortisol in hair is not suitable for investigating short-term stress in livestock, as it is with blood. While measuring stress indices using hair may not be appropriate for replacing blood, it is considered a highly suitable practice for animal welfare, and further research in this area should be continued.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was financially supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (IPET) through Livestock Industrialization Technology Development Program (322101-03-2-CG000), funded by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA).

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