Associations of behaviour with secretory immunoglobulin A and cortisol in domestic cats during their first week in an animal shelter
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2014 |
Authors: |
Nadine Gourkow, Alora LaVoy, Gregg A. Dean, Clive J. C. Phillips |
Publication/Journal: |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Keywords: |
behaviour, cat, cortisol, immunoglobulin a, shelter |
ISBN: |
0168-1591 |
Abstract:
We tested the hypothesis that during their first week in an animal shelter, cats exhibit groups of behaviours that are connected to mucosal immune and adrenal responses. The behaviour of 34 cats was observed from admission to day 5 and immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) and cortisol were quantified from faeces. A multidimensional model constructed by Principal Component Analysis indicated the presence of three distinct behavioural dimensions. Behaviours forming dimension 1 were hiding, flat postures, freeze, startle, crawl and retreat from humans. These were significantly contrasted (R −0.6 to −0.4) to dimension 3 behaviours which included normal patterns of feeding, grooming, sleeping and locomotion, sitting at the front of the cage while calmly observing activities, sleeping or resting while lying on their side, rubbing on cage items and friendly behaviour towards humans. Dimension 2 behaviours included persistent meowing, scanning, pacing and pushing, together with bouts of destructive behaviour, attempts to escape and redirected aggression. Dimension 2 was not significantly contrasted to dimension 3 (R < −0.4 except for sleep = 0.6) or dimension 1 (R ≤ −0.2). S-IgA values were greater (P < 0.001) for cats clustered in dimension 3 (mean 7.1 ± 0.5 loge μg/g), compared to dimensions 1 and 2 which were not significantly different ((1) 5.6 ± 0.6; (2) 5.6 ±0.7 loge μg/g). Cortisol values were similar for the three dimensions. Despite the difficulty in generalising the results to the shelter cat population due to small sample size, our findings suggest that behaviour is a good indicator of mucosal immune function in shelter cats. This may be of clinical significance for the management of upper respiratory disease in animal shelters.