Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)
Glucocorticoid (GC) levels are increasingly and widely used as biomarkers of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity to study the effects of environmental changes and other perturbations on wildlife individuals and populations. However, identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9040286 2023-05-15T15:15:22+02:00 Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) Di Francesco, Juliette Kwong, Grace P S Deardon, Rob Checkley, Sylvia L Mastromonaco, Gabriela F Mavrot, Fabien Leclerc, Lisa-Marie Kutz, Susan 2022-01-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9040286/ https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 en eng Oxford University Press http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9040286/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for Experimental Biology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Conserv Physiol Research Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 2022-05-01T00:52:33Z Glucocorticoid (GC) levels are increasingly and widely used as biomarkers of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity to study the effects of environmental changes and other perturbations on wildlife individuals and populations. However, identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence GC levels is a key step in endocrinology studies to ensure accurate interpretation of GC responses. In muskoxen, qiviut (fine woolly undercoat hair) cortisol concentration is an integrative biomarker of HPA axis activity over the course of the hair’s growth. We gathered data from 219 wild muskoxen harvested in the Canadian Arctic between October 2015 and May 2019. We examined the relationship between qiviut cortisol and various intrinsic (sex, age, body condition and incisor breakage) and extrinsic biotic factors (lungworm and gastrointestinal parasite infections and exposure to bacteria), as well as broader non-specific landscape and temporal features (geographical location, season and year). A Bayesian approach, which allows for the joint estimation of missing values in the data and model parameters estimates, was applied for the statistical analyses. The main findings include the following: (i) higher qiviut cortisol levels in males than in females; (ii) inter-annual variations; (iii) higher qiviut cortisol levels in a declining population compared to a stable population; (iv) a negative association between qiviut cortisol and marrow fat percentage; (v) a relationship between qiviut cortisol and the infection intensity of the lungworm Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis, which varied depending on the geographical location; and (vi) no association between qiviut cortisol and other pathogen exposure/infection intensity metrics. This study confirmed and further identified important sources of variability in qiviut cortisol levels, while providing important insights on the relationship between GC levels and pathogen exposure/infection intensity. Results support the use of qiviut cortisol as a tool to monitor ... Text Arctic ovibos moschatus PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Conservation Physiology 10 1 |
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Research Article |
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Research Article Di Francesco, Juliette Kwong, Grace P S Deardon, Rob Checkley, Sylvia L Mastromonaco, Gabriela F Mavrot, Fabien Leclerc, Lisa-Marie Kutz, Susan Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
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Research Article |
description |
Glucocorticoid (GC) levels are increasingly and widely used as biomarkers of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity to study the effects of environmental changes and other perturbations on wildlife individuals and populations. However, identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence GC levels is a key step in endocrinology studies to ensure accurate interpretation of GC responses. In muskoxen, qiviut (fine woolly undercoat hair) cortisol concentration is an integrative biomarker of HPA axis activity over the course of the hair’s growth. We gathered data from 219 wild muskoxen harvested in the Canadian Arctic between October 2015 and May 2019. We examined the relationship between qiviut cortisol and various intrinsic (sex, age, body condition and incisor breakage) and extrinsic biotic factors (lungworm and gastrointestinal parasite infections and exposure to bacteria), as well as broader non-specific landscape and temporal features (geographical location, season and year). A Bayesian approach, which allows for the joint estimation of missing values in the data and model parameters estimates, was applied for the statistical analyses. The main findings include the following: (i) higher qiviut cortisol levels in males than in females; (ii) inter-annual variations; (iii) higher qiviut cortisol levels in a declining population compared to a stable population; (iv) a negative association between qiviut cortisol and marrow fat percentage; (v) a relationship between qiviut cortisol and the infection intensity of the lungworm Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis, which varied depending on the geographical location; and (vi) no association between qiviut cortisol and other pathogen exposure/infection intensity metrics. This study confirmed and further identified important sources of variability in qiviut cortisol levels, while providing important insights on the relationship between GC levels and pathogen exposure/infection intensity. Results support the use of qiviut cortisol as a tool to monitor ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Di Francesco, Juliette Kwong, Grace P S Deardon, Rob Checkley, Sylvia L Mastromonaco, Gabriela F Mavrot, Fabien Leclerc, Lisa-Marie Kutz, Susan |
author_facet |
Di Francesco, Juliette Kwong, Grace P S Deardon, Rob Checkley, Sylvia L Mastromonaco, Gabriela F Mavrot, Fabien Leclerc, Lisa-Marie Kutz, Susan |
author_sort |
Di Francesco, Juliette |
title |
Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
title_short |
Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
title_full |
Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
title_fullStr |
Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) |
title_sort |
qiviut cortisol is associated with metrics of health and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors in wild muskoxen (ovibos moschatus) |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9040286/ https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic ovibos moschatus |
genre_facet |
Arctic ovibos moschatus |
op_source |
Conserv Physiol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9040286/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for Experimental Biology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coab103 |
container_title |
Conservation Physiology |
container_volume |
10 |
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1 |
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1766345743848701952 |