ArticlePoultry science2020
Corticosterone in feathers of laying hens: an assay validation for evidence-based assessment of animal welfare.
Article in Poultry science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Comparative evaluation of native slow-growing roosters: focus on gut integrity and physiological traits.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Animal welfare indicators and stress response of broiler chickens raised at low and high stocking density.Journal of animal science and technology · 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
- Folic acid alleviates the negative effects of dexamethasone induced stress on production performance in Hyline Brown laying hens.Animal nutrition (Zhongguo xu mu shou yi xue hui) · 2025Article
- Analysis of the Reliability of Feather Sections for Corticosterone Measurement in Pekin Ducks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 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
- Circadian Corticosterone Profile in Laying Hens (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Effects of Housing System on Anxiety, Chronic Stress, Fear, and Immune Function in Bovan Brown Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Comparison of stress biomarkers in laying hens raised under a long-term multiple stress condition.Poultry science · 2022Article
- Effect of Providing Environmental Enrichment into Aviary House on the Welfare of Laying Hens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Non-Targeted Metabolomic Analysis of Chicken Kidneys in Response to Coronavirus IBV Infection Under Stress Induced by Dexamethasone.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Article
- Comparative effects of dietary functional nutrients on growth performance, meat quality, immune responses, and stress biomarkers in broiler chickens raised under heat stress conditions.Animal bioscience · 2021Article
- Feather Corticosterone Measurements and Behavioral Observations in the Great White Pelican (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- 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
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Studies indicate that the evaluation of animal welfare in birds may be carried out with the measurement of the stress-related hormone corticosterone in feathers. However a standardized procedure for corticosterone measurements in feathers is lacking, a validation needs to be carried out for each new species before implementation. The aim of the present study was to establish a valid method to measure corticosterone concentrations in feathers of laying hens in a precise and repeatable manner using an established and commercially available ELISA. Validation was performed with feather pools of tail and interscapular feathers of commercial Lohmann Brown laying hens. Assessment groups, consisting of 5 replicates, were created. All replicates of an assessment group were processed at the same time. Each replicate was run in 4 repetitions by ELISA. Intra-assay and interassay CV was 7.5 and 6.4%, respectively. The serial dilution showed linearity and parallelism. Examining the hormone extraction efficiency by using different methanol volumes resulted in no statistical differences (P > 0.05). Pulverized feathers showed higher corticosterone values than minced feathers (P > 0.05). Differences were shown between 2 feather types (tail vs. interscapular feathers; P < 0.05), as well as between vane and rachis (P < 0.05). Performance of a freeze-thaw cycle led to a decrease of corticosterone concentrations in the samples. A possible effect of UV-A radiation on the stability of corticosterone in the feathers was not found (P > 0.05). With the present study, a valid protocol, feasible for analyzing feather pools of laying hens, was developed. It may provide fundamentals for further investigations on corticosterone in feathers as a noninvasive indicator to evaluate aspects of animal welfare.
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