Abstracts

Presented by Breanne Murray - Email: bam170@mail.usask.ca

Waterfowl populations are expected to decline because of anthropogenic and environmental changes (stressors such as altered habitat and food supply, climate change, etc.). These stressors can trigger the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis to release corticosterone (CORT) which triggers a myriad of physiological processes that provide energy to deal with the stressor, restore homeostasis and increase survival. Corticosterone has been used to monitor the impacts of stressors in many species. However, as CORT can be highly variable (fluctuates amongst normal life history stages) and is impacted by acute stressors, such as handling during blood sampling, it may not be a reliable biomarker. Metabolomics is a novel tool that involves a systems approach to studying small, endogenous metabolites which participate in metabolic reactions including response to stressors. The objective of this study was to validate the use of fecal metabolomics as a biomonitoring tool in waterfowl. We hypothesized that metabolomics can be used to differentiate ducks that were subjected to a stressor (restricted feed) from unstressed control ducks. Captive mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were subjected to either a stressor of a six-day restrictive food trial (75% of basal metabolic rate, treatment, n=9) or ad lib food (control, n=9). Fecal samples were collected from ducks prior to and during feed restriction. H1 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was performed to analyze metabolites. We found that fecal metabolite profiles could be used to distinguish ducks subjected to restricted feed from control individuals. Fecal metabolomics shows promise as a non-invasive novel tool in identifying and characterizing physiological responses associated with large-scale environmental changes in wild birds. Topics: Stress, Physiology, Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos, Biomonitoring, Fecal metabolites