Chronic exposure to multiple stressors alters the salivary proteome of piglets

Monitoring chronic stress in pigs is not only essential in view of animal welfare but is also important for the farmer, given that stress influences the zootechnical performance of the pigs and increases their susceptibility to infectious diseases. To investigate the use of saliva as a non-invasive, objective chronic stress monitoring tool, twenty-four 4-day-old piglets were transferred to artificial brooders. At the age of 7 days, they were assigned to either the control or the stressed group and reared for three weeks. Piglets in the stressed group were exposed to overcrowding, absence of cage enrichment, and frequent mixing of animals between pens. Shotgun analysis using an isobaric labelling method (iTRAQ) for tandem mass spectrometry performed on saliva samples taken after three weeks of chronic stress identified 392 proteins, of which 20 proteins displayed significantly altered concentrations. From these 20 proteins, eight were selected for further validation using parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). For this validation, saliva samples that were taken one week after the start of the experiment and samples that were taken at the end of the experiment were analysed to verify the profile over time. We wanted to investigate whether the candidate biomarkers responded fast or rather slowly to the onset of chronic exposure to multiple stressors. Furthermore, this validation could indicate whether age influenced the baseline concentrations of these salivary proteins, both in healthy and stressed animals. This targeted PRM analysis confirmed that alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein was upregulated in the stressed group after one and three weeks, while odorant-binding protein, chitinase, long palate lung and nasal epithelium protein 5, lipocalin-1, and vomeromodulin-like protein were present in lower concentrations in the saliva of the stressed pigs, albeit only after three weeks. These results indicate that the porcine salivary proteome is altered by chronic exposure to multiple stressors. The affected proteins could be used as salivary biomarkers to identify welfare problems at the farm and facilitate research to optimise rearing conditions.