Salivary stress markers in dogs: Potential markers of acute stress

Along with the growing awareness of psychological stress in companion animals, several treatments have become available to address fear- and anxiety-related behaviors in dogs. To detect vulnerable individuals and apply effective treatments, reliable evaluations that can quantify individual stress re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in veterinary science 2021-12, Vol.141, p.48-55
Main Authors: Kooriyama, Takanori, Ogata, Niwako
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anxiety
Biomarkers
Catecholamines
Circadian rhythm
Dogs
Evaluation
Heart rate
Hormones
Hydrocortisone
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System
Hypothalamus
Immune system
Pituitary
Pituitary-Adrenal System
Psychological stress
Saliva
SAM axis
Stress
Stress response
Stress, Psychological - diagnosis
Veterinary medicine
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Along with the growing awareness of psychological stress in companion animals, several treatments have become available to address fear- and anxiety-related behaviors in dogs. To detect vulnerable individuals and apply effective treatments, reliable evaluations that can quantify individual stress responses are in high demand. To develop measurable variables that have clinical applications, more investigations are needed to increase our knowledge. When stress responses are activated by the sympathetic-adrenal–medullary (SAM) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes, the immune system is also activated. Although the peripheral cortisol level is commonly used as a stress biomarker, it primarily reflects the HPA axis response and does not sufficiently reflect the complexity of the stress response. Thus, this review primarily focuses on the available salivary biomarkers that mainly reflect the acute stress response through the activity of the SAM axis and the immune system in dogs. We hope that this review will promote the validation of these biomarkers in dogs and aid in the development of future studies to evaluate stress responses in dogs. •The stress response is complex, and measuring one dimension, such as cortisol, may provide only limited information.•The development of more markers to measure the multidimensional stress response from the HPA and SAM axes to the immune system is needed in dogs.•Salivary analytes may be utilized as noninvasive multidimensional stress markers once validated.
ISSN:0034-5288
1532-2661
DOI:10.1016/j.rvsc.2021.10.009