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The effect of duration of manual restraint during blood sampling on plasma cortisol levels in calves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

G Stilwell G ,
C de Carvalho R ,
MS Lima  and
DM Broom
G Stilwell G*
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Departamento de Clínica, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, UTL. Av. Universidade Técnica, Alto da Ajuda, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
C de Carvalho R
Affiliation:
Clínica VetMondego, 3140 Montemor-o-velho, Portugal
MS Lima
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Departamento de Clínica, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, UTL. Av. Universidade Técnica, Alto da Ajuda, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
DM Broom
Affiliation:
Centre for Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: stilwell@fmv.utl.pt
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Abstract

Many studies on stress and pain rely, solely or mainly, on plasma Cortisol assessment. Confounding factors, such as handling, may cause a release of Cortisol making the interpretation of the results difficult. We looked at the influence of duration of restraint on the plasma cortisol levels of one-to-two month old calves. Forty-three calves were divided into four groups according to the interval between restraint and blood sampling: i) Group 0, immediate blood-sampling; ii) Group 0.5M, half a minute restraint; iii) Group IM, one minute restraint and iv) Group 2M, two minutes restraint. The only increase in plasma cortisol, compared with all the other groups, was seen with blood sampling after two minutes of restraint. This study provides evidence to suggest that cortisol released as a result of handling stress is not evident if blood sampling is carried out within one minute of restraining calves.

Keywords

animal welfarecalvescortisolhandlingrestrainstress
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 383 - 385
Copyright
© 2008 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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