Published January 6, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Correcting for enzyme immunoassay changes in long term monitoring studies

Creators

  • 1. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B3, Canada
  • 2. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland
  • 3. Faculty of Environmental Science and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
  • 4. Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway
  • 5. fRI Research, Grizzly Bear Program, Canada
  • 6. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Description

Enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) are a common tool for measuring steroid hormones in wildlife due to their low cost, commercial availability, and rapid results. Testing technologies improve continuously, sometimes requiring changes in protocols or crucial assay components. Antibody replacement between EIA kits can cause differences in EIA sensitivity, which can hinder monitoring hormone concentration over time. The antibody in a common cortisol EIA kit used for long-term monitoring of stress in wildlife was replaced in 2014, causing differences in cross reactivity and standard curve concentrations. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a method to standardize results following changes in EIA sensitivity. We validated this method using cortisol concentrations measured in the hair of brown bears (Ursus arctos).

Notes

This study was supported by the Grizzly-PAW project (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada [File: CRDPJ 486175 – 15], Grantee: N.C. Coops, FRM, UBC), in collaboration with fRI Research and FRIAA, Alberta Newsprint Company, Canfor, Cenovus, Repsol, Seven Generations Energy, Shell Canada, TransCanada Pipelines, Teck Resources, West Fraser, Westmoreland Coal, and Weyerhaeuser. More information can be found at http://paw.forestry.ubc.ca/. This is scientific publication No. 299 from the SBBRP, whose long-term funding comes primarily from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, and the Austrian Science Fund. AZ and NS were supported by "BearConnect" funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders ANR (ANR-16-EBI3–0003), NCN (2016/22/Z/NZ8/00121), DLR- PT (01LC1614A), UEFISCDI (BiodivERsA3-2015-147-BearConnect (96/2016)), and RCN (269863). AS and NS were partly supported by funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778 through National Science Centre in Poland, within the frames of project no. 2016/23/P/NZ9/03951 (BearHealth). We acknowledge the support of the Center for Advanced Study in Oslo, Norway, that funded and hosted our research project "Climate effects on harvested large mammal populations" during the academic year of 2015–2016 and funding from the Polish-Norwegian Research Program operated by the National Center for Research and Development under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009– 2014 in the frame of Project Contract no. POL-NOR/198352/85/2013.

Files

Wilson et al. 2021 Correction for enzyme immunoassay .pdf

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Additional details

Funding

POLONEZ – SUPPORTING MOBILITY IN THE ERA THROUGH AN INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME FOR DEVELOPEMENT OF BASIC RESEARCH IN POLAND 665778
European Commission