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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Anim. Sci.

Sec. Animal Welfare and Policy

Hair cortisol concentrations were not impacted by collection region in cross-bred Angus Steers

Provisionally accepted
Huey Y LohHuey Y Loh1C OkorenC Okoren2D Velazco-MarroquinD Velazco-Marroquin2Lily KeoghLily Keogh2Johann (Hans) CoetzeeJohann (Hans) Coetzee3Lily Nowell Edwards-CallawayLily Nowell Edwards-Callaway2Terry EngleTerry Engle2M Caitlin CramerM Caitlin Cramer2*
  • 1Department of Animal Science, Colorado State University Libraries, Fort Collins, United States
  • 2Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
  • 3Kansas State University, Manhattan, United States

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Hair cortisol has been used to evaluate long-term stress in cattle. However, hair sample collection regions vary between studies. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate hair cortisol concentrations in four different anatomical locations on cattle to determine if cortisol concentrations differed between sampling regions or sides. Sixteen crossbred black Angus steers (≥ 24 months of age, 800 ± 10 kg) were utilized in this experiment. Hair samples were collected from 1) left hip, 2) left shoulder, 3) right hip, and 4) right shoulder of each steer (4 samples/animal). Hair samples were analyzed for cortisol using an ELISA kit. A linear mixed effect model and type III analysis of variance were fitted for statistical analysis using R software, with steer being the whole plots and location of hair collection being the split plots. Hair cortisol concentration was similar (P > 0.10) across different collection regions. However, the study had a lower statistical power and therefore results should be interpreted cautiously. Hair cortisol analysis is a useful tool to evaluate long-term stress in animals; understanding the consistency of hair cortisol concentrations between body regions can influence how sample collection occurs in future studies. The current study indicated that hair sampled from left hip, left shoulder, right hip, and right shoulder of the cattle have similar hair cortisol levels under these conditions. The present study was limited by sample size, and more more studies that assess variations in hair cortisol to due sampling location, age, and breed are needed.

Keywords: Anatomical, Cattle, Long-term stress, methods, welfare

Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 05 Dec 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Loh, Okoren, Velazco-Marroquin, Keogh, Coetzee, Edwards-Callaway, Engle and Cramer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: M Caitlin Cramer

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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