Abstract: Conservation medicine is a discipline in which researchers and conservationists study and respond to the dynamic interplay between animals, humans, and the environment. From a wildlife perspective, animal species are encountering stressors from numerous sources. With the rapidly increasing human population, a corresponding increased demand for food, fuel, and shelter; habitat destruction; and increased competition for natural resources, the health and well-being of wild animal populations is increasingly at risk of disease and endangerment. Scientific data are needed to measure the impact that human encroachment is having on wildlife. Nonbiased biometric data provide a means to measure the amount of stress being imposed on animals from humans, the environment, and other animals. The stress response in animals functions via glucocorticoid metabolism and is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Fecal glucocorticoids, in particular, may be an extremely useful biometric test, since sample collection is noninvasive to subjects and, therefore, does not introduce other variables that may alter assay results. For this reason, many researchers and conservationists have begun to use fecal glucocorticoids as a means to measure stress in various animal species. This review article summarizes the literature on many studies in which fecal glucocorticoids and their metabolites have been used to assess stress levels in various mammalian species. Variations between studies are the main focus of this review. Collection methods, storage conditions, shipping procedures, and laboratory techniques utilized by different researchers are discussed.

Abstract: Heart rate, arterial blood pressures, respiratory rate, body temperature, and central nervous system excitement were compared before and after epidural administration of morphine (0.1 mg/kg), butorphanol (0.08 mg/kg), alfentanil (0.02 mg/kg), tramadol (1.0 mg/kg), the k-opioid agonist U50488H (0.08 mg/kg), or sterile water using an incomplete Latin square crossover design in five conscious adult horses. Treatments were administered into the first intercoccygeal epidural space. Significant (P <.05) reductions in respiratory rate were detected after epidural administration of morphine, alfentanil, U50488H, and sterile water. Additionally, significant (P <.05) head ptosis was observed within the first hour after administration of morphine, U50488H, and tramadol, but neither of these changes appeared to be of clinical significance. No treatment-related changes in motor activity or behavior were observed.

Abstract: The social intelligence hypothesis argues that competition and cooperation among individuals have shaped the evolution of cognition in animals. What do we mean by social cognition? Here we suggest that the building blocks of social cognition are a suite of skills, ordered roughly according to the cognitive demands they place upon individuals. These skills allow an animal to recognize others by various means; to recognize and remember other animals' relationships; and, perhaps, to attribute mental states to them. Some skills are elementary and virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom; others are more limited in their taxonomic distribution. We treat these skills as the targets of selection, and assume that more complex levels of social cognition evolve only when simpler methods are inadequate. As a result, more complex levels of social cognition indicate greater selective pressures in the past. The presence of each skill can be tested directly through field observations and experiments. In addition, the same methods that have been used to compare social cognition across species can also be used to measure individual differences within species and to test the hypothesis that individual differences in social cognition are linked to differences in reproductive success.

Abstract: Non-invasive techniques to monitor stress hormones in small animals like mice offer several advantages and are highly demanded in laboratory as well as in field research. Since knowledge about the species-specific metabolism and excretion of glucocorticoids is essential to develop such a technique, we conducted radiometabolism studies in mice (Mus musculus f. domesticus, strain C57BL/6J). Each mouse was injected intraperitoneally with 740 kBq of 3H-labelled corticosterone and all voided urine and fecal samples were collected for five days. In a first experiment 16 animals (eight of each sex) received the injection at 9 a.m., while eight mice (four of each sex) were injected at 9 p.m. in a second experiment. In both experiments radioactive metabolites were recovered predominantly in the feces, although males excreted significantly higher proportions via the feces (about 73%) than females (about 53%). Peak radioactivity in the urine was detected within about 2h after injection, while in the feces peak concentrations were observed later (depending on the time of injection: about 10h postinjection in experiment 1 and about 4h postinjection in experiment 2, thus proving an effect of the time of day). The number and relative abundance of fecal [3H]corticosterone metabolites was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC separations revealed that corticosterone was extensively metabolized mainly to more polar substances. Regarding the types of metabolites formed, significant differences were found between males and females, but not between the experiments. Additionally, the immunoreactivity of these metabolites was assessed by screening the HPLC fractions with four enzyme immunoassays (EIA). However, only a newly established EIA for 5alpha-pregnane-3beta,11beta,21-triol-20-one (measuring corticosterone metabolites with a 5alpha-3beta,11beta-diol structure) detected several peaks of radioactive metabolites with high intensity in both sexes, while the other EIAs showed only minor immunoreactivity. Thus, our study for the first time provides substantial information about metabolism and excretion of corticosterone in urine and feces of mice and is the first demonstrating a significant impact of the animals' sex and the time of day. Based on these data it should be possible to monitor adrenocortical activity non-invasively in this species by measuring fecal corticosterone metabolites with the newly developed EIA. Since mice are extensively used in research world-wide, this could open new perspectives in various fields from ecology to behavioral endocrinology.

Abstract: Reasons for performing the study: Similar to human decubitus ulcers, local high pressure points from ill-fitting saddles induce perfusion disturbances of different degrees resulting in tissue hypoxia and alteration in sweat production. Objective: To relate the different clinical manifestations of saddle sores to the magnitude of saddle pressures at the location of the withers. Methods: Sixteen horses with dry spots after exercise (Group A) and 7 cases presented with acute clinical signs of saddle pressure in the withers area (Group B) were compared with a control group of 16 sound horses with well fitting saddles (Group C). All horses underwent a saddle pressure measurement at walk, trot and canter. Mean and maximal pressures in the area of interest were compared between groups within each gait. Results: Mean pressures differed significantly between groups in all 3 gaits. Maximal pressure differed between groups at trot; at walk and canter, however, the only significant difference was between Group C and Groups A and B, respectively, (P>0.05). Mean and maximal pressures at walk in Group A were 15.3 and 30.6 kPa, in Group B 24.0 and 38.9 kPa and in Group C 7.8 and 13.4 kPa, respectively; at trot in Group A 18.1 and 43.4 kPa, in Group B 29.7 and 53.3 kPa and in Group C 9.8 and 21.0 kPa, respectively; and at canter in Group A 21.4 and 48.9 kPa, in Group B 28.6 and 56.0 kPa and in Group C 10.9 and 24.7 kPa, respectively. Conclusion: The study shows that there is a distinguishable difference between the 3 groups regarding the mean pressure value, in all gaits.