Cortisol Concentration in Horsehair and its Relationship to Body Location, Coat Colour, and Gender

The determination of cortisol concentrations in animal hair appears to be a relatively simple and non-invasive method of assessing chronic stress. This method has advantages but it also has some drawbacks. We discovered that there are specific coat properties and individual factors in animlas that can affect corisol levels and skew the interpretation of results. We removed horsehair from 8 different areas of the body (chest, left saddle, right saddle, right thoracic fetlock, and left thoracic fetlock, the mane was also sampled at the withers, just behind the ears, and the tail strand) in 31 horses and found statistically significant differences in cortisol concentrations There were statistically significant differences in the color of black, white, and brown hair based on the amount of cortisol excreted. In contrast, no significant differences in cortisol concentrations were found when the animals' sexes were compared. Samples should be taken from the same region with the same hair colour to obtain accurate results as the literature states that colour and location of the hair sampling effects cortisol concentrations. Studies also show that the gender of the animal has no effect on cortisol concentration.