Amb motiu del tancament d'estiu, la validació de documents es reprendrà a partir del 28 d'agost de 2026. Disculpeu les molèsties.
Con motivo del cierre de verano, la validación de documentos se reanudará a partir del 28 de agosto de 2026. Disculpad las molestias
Due to the summer closure, document validation will resume starting August 28, 2026. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Files

698150.pdf (336.33 KB)

Document type

Article

Version

Published version

Publication date

2019-11-08

Publication license

cc-by (c) Carbajal, Annaïs et al., 2019
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/156297

Towards non-invasive methods in measuring fish welfare: the measurement of cortisol concentrations in fish skin mucus as a biomarker of habitat quality

Journal Title

Authors

Director/Tutor

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Related resource

https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9110939

Abstract

Cortisol levels in fish skin mucus have shown to be good stress indicators in farm fish exposed to different stressors. Its applicability in free-ranging animals subject to long-term environmental stressors though remains to be explored. The present study was therefore designed to examine whether skin mucus cortisol levels from a wild freshwater fish (Catalan chub, Squalius laietanus) are affected by the habitat quality. Several well-established hematological parameters and cortisol concentrations were measured in blood and compared to variations in skin mucus cortisol values across three habitats with different pollution gradient. Fluctuations of cortisol in skin mucus varied across the streams of differing habitat quality, following a similar pattern of response to that detected by the assessment of cortisol levels in blood and the hematological parameters. Furthermore, there was a close relationship between cortisol concentrations in skin mucus and several of the erythrocytic alterations and the relative proportion of neutrophils to lymphocytes. Taken together, results of this study provide the first evidence that skin mucus cortisol levels could be influenced by habitat quality. Although results should be interpreted with caution, because a mall sample size was collected in one studied habitat, the measurement of cortisol in skin mucus could be potentially used as a biomarker in freshwater fish.

Subject

Peixos, Contaminació, Glucocorticoides

Subject (English)

Fishes, Pollution, Glucocorticoids

Citation

Collections

Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals)

Citation

CARBAJAL, Annaïs, et al. Towards non-invasive methods in measuring fish welfare: the measurement of cortisol concentrations in fish skin mucus as a biomarker of habitat quality. Animals. 2019. Vol. 9, num. 11, pags. 939. ISSN 2076-2615. [consulted: 10 of August of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/156297

Export metadata

JSON - METS

Share record