ArticleConservation physiology2018
Quantifying corticosterone in feathers: validations for an emerging technique.
Article in Conservation physiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Spent hemp biomass in broiler diets: effects on performance, meat quality, expression of genes in internal adipose tissue, and corticosterone in feathers.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Chronic stress and fear in fast- and slow-growing broilers as they age and gain weight when raised in simple or complex environments.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Impacts of Enrichment Type (Hut vs. Platform) on Chronic Stress and Anxiety in Six Fast- and Slow-Growing Broiler Strains.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Stress, Well-Being, and Reproduction in Wildlife.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Donkey hair cortisol concentrations are associated with carrying heavy load and being beaten at work.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Effects of Cool Water Supply on Laying Performance, Egg Quality, Rectal Temperature and Stress Hormones in Heat-Stressed Laying Hens in Open-Type Laying Houses.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Effects of Increased Housing Space Without Altering Stocking Density on Body Weight, Stress, and Gut Microbiome in Broiler Chickens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Analysis of the Reliability of Feather Sections for Corticosterone Measurement in Pekin Ducks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Dermal glucocorticoids are uncoupled from stress physiology and infection.Conservation physiology · 2025Article
- Enhancing meat-type chicken performance throughArchives animal breeding · 2025Article
- Effects of Heat Stress on the Laying Performance, Egg Quality, and Physiological Response of Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Article
- Clicker Training as an Applied Refinement Measure in Chickens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Evaluation of physiological stress in free-ranging bears: current knowledge and future directions.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2023Review
- Stress Concepts and Applications in Various Matrices with a Focus on Hair Cortisol and Analytical Methods.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Selection of appropriate biomatrices for studies of chronic stress in animals: a review.Journal of animal science and technology · 2022Review
- The Effect of Egg Laying on Feather and Plasma Corticosterone Concentrations in Turkey (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Corticosterone in feathers: Inter- and intraindividual variation in pullets and the importance of the feather type.Veterinary and animal science · 2021Article
- Conservation physiology and the COVID-19 pandemic.Conservation physiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Feather corticosterone measurement is becoming a widespread tool for assessing avian physiology. Corticosterone is deposited into feathers during growth and provides integrative and retrospective measures of an individual's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. Although researchers across disciplines have been measuring feather corticosterone for the past decade, there are still many issues with the extraction and measurement of corticosterone from feathers. In this paper, we provide several directives for refining the methodology for feather hormone analysis. We compare parallelism between the standard curve and serially diluted feather tissue from wild turkeys, Canada jays, and black-capped chickadees to demonstrate the wide applicability across species. Through a series of validations, we compare methods for feather preparation, sample filtration and extract reconstitution prior to corticosterone quantification using a radioimmunoassay. Higher corticosterone yields were achieved following pulverization of the feather however, more variation between replicates was observed. Removal of the rachis also increased the amount of corticosterone detected per unit mass while glass versus paper filters had no effect, and using ethanol in the reconstution buffer decreased intra-assay variation. With these findings and continued methodological refinement, feather corticosterone has the potential to be a powerful tool for both ecologists and physiologists working with historical and contemporary specimens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.