Skin temperature reveals the intensity of acute stress

  • Herborn, Katherine A.
  • Graves, James L.
  • Jerem, Paul
  • Evans, Neil P.
  • Nager, Ruedi
  • McCafferty, Dominic J.
  • McKeegan, Dorothy E.F.
Publication date
December 2015
Publisher
Elsevier Inc.
ISSN
0031-9384
Citation count (estimate)
15

Abstract

AbstractAcute stress triggers peripheral vasoconstriction, causing a rapid, short-term drop in skin temperature in homeotherms. We tested, for the first time, whether this response has the potential to quantify stress, by exhibiting proportionality with stressor intensity. We used established behavioural and hormonal markers: activity level and corticosterone level, to validate a mild and more severe form of an acute restraint stressor in hens (Gallus gallus domesticus). We then used infrared thermography (IRT) to non-invasively collect continuous temperature measurements following exposure to these two intensities of acute handling stress. In the comb and wattle, two skin regions with a known thermoregulatory role, stressor intensity predi...

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