Meeting Abstract

P3.162  Tuesday, Jan. 6  The effect of chronic psychological stress on blood chemistry in European starlings AWERMAN, Jessica L.*; ROMERO, L. Michael; Tufts University; Tufts University jessica.awerman@tufts.edu

Chronic psychological stress in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris has been shown to cause a decrease in body weight during the period of stress. However, after the stress is alleviated body weight not only recovers but increases beyond the initial value for at least several weeks. We studied the effect of chronic psychological stress on body weight and ten blood chemistry parameters in starlings to examine the mechanism controlling the weight drop and gain. The blood chemistry parameters included albumin (ALB), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), calcium (CA), creatinine kinase (CK), glucose (GLU), globulin (GLOB), phosphorus (PHOS), potassium (K+), sodium (NA+), total protein (TP), and uric acid (UA). To induce chronic stress we rotated six different stressors (cage tapping, cage rolling, crowding, bag restraint, human voice, and radio) in a random order for 30 minutes for 4 times per day over 21 days. Mass was measured at least once every three days during chronic stress. Blood samples were collected three times every two weeks. As expected the average weight decreased by approximately 5% during chronic stress. The only parameters that varied over chronic stress were a decrease in AST and CK. The starlings were then monitored during a recovery phase of 60 days. In which mass was measured every week and blood samples were taken three times in the first 21 days. During this period the average weight remained at a constant 5 10% above the initial weight prior to the onset of chronic stress. All blood chemistry parameters remained constant over this period. Our study suggests that there may be a liver or muscle protein breakdown during chronic stress; however the sustained increase in weight following chronic stress cannot be explained using the blood chemistry parameters we measured.