Measuring Fecal Steroids: Guidelines for Practical Application
Abstract
During the past 20 years, measuring steroid hormone metabolites in fecal samples has become a widely appreciated technique, because it has proved to be a powerful, noninvasive tool that provides important information about an animal's endocrine status (adrenocortical activity and reproductive status). However, although sampling is relatively easy to perform and free of feedback, a careful consideration of various factors is necessary to achieve proper results that lead to sound conclusions. This article aims to provide guidelines for an adequate application of these techniques. It is meant as a checklist that addresses the main topics of concern, such as sample collection and storage, time delay extraction procedures, assay selection and validation, biological relevance, and some confounding factors. These issues are discussed briefly here and in more detail in other recent articles.
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The FGM levels obtained in this study represent a pooled measure over a certain time period, reflecting cumulative secretion.
“Consequently, we consider the FGM levels obtained as a pooled measure over a certain time period, representing a cumulative secretion, as suggested by several other authors (e.g.Goymann et al., 1999;Palme, 2005;Keay et al., 2006;Cockrem, 2007;Palme, 2012).”
From Effect of weather conditions and presence of visitors on adrenocortical activity in captive African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) (2017) · cites this paper as Palme, 2005
To analyse whether the effect has physiological consequences for the animal, more direct measures of physiological stress and fitness consequences are required.
“However, to analyse whether the effect has physiological consequences for the animal, more direct measures of physiological stress and fitness consequences are required [61,62].”
From The visitor effect on zoo animals: implications and opportunities for zoo animal welfare (2019) · cites this paper as [62]
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References 21 · Cited by 520
- Authors
- PALME, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (AT)
- Corresponding author
- PALME, RUPERT
- ORCID
- PALME, RUPERT
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-06
- Volume
- 1046
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 75-80
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W1986795772
- Cited by
- 520
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 57 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 24.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- European Science Foundation
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Medicine and Surgery
- Keywords
- fecal steroid hormones, steroid hormone metabolites, sample collection and storage, sample extraction, assay validation, adrenocortical function, reproductive status, confounding factors
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Feces, Immunoassay, Specimen Handling, Steroids, Reproducibility of Results
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