Quantifying hormones in exhaled breath for physiological assessment of large whales at sea.

ABSTRACT: Exhaled breath analysis is a non-invasive assessment tool that has shown promise in human diagnostics, and could greatly benefit research, management, and conservation of large whales. However, hormone assessment of whale respiratory vapor (blow) has been challenged by variable water content and unknown total volume of collected samples. To advance this technique, we investigated urea (a compound present in narrow range in circulation) as a normalizing factor to correct for blow sample concentration. Normalized progesterone, testosterone, and cortisol concentrations of 100 blow samples from 46 photo-identified North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) were more biologically relevant compared to absolute estimates, varying by sex, age class, or individual. Progesterone was elevated

SUBMITTER: Burgess EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6050234 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature