• Study demonstrates accuracy of less inva

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Jan 24 21:30:36 2022
    Study demonstrates accuracy of less invasive technique for monitoring
    wildlife health

    Date:
    January 24, 2022
    Source:
    North Carolina State University
    Summary:
    A recent study finds a technique that uses dried spots of blood to
    measure health indicators in elephants is comparable to techniques
    that use larger blood samples and require immediate cold storage --
    technology that is not always available when monitoring animals
    in the wild.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    A recent study from North Carolina State University finds a technique
    that uses dried spots of blood to measure health indicators in elephants
    is comparable to techniques that use larger blood samples and require
    immediate cold storage - - technology that is not always available when monitoring animals in the wild.


    ==========================================================================
    "Our study focused on omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which can
    be measured in blood and tell us a lot about an animal's health,"
    says Jordan Wood, who recently defended her Ph.D. dissertation at NC
    State and first author of a paper on the work. "In elephants, these
    fatty acids are particularly valuable indicators of cardiovascular
    and reproductive health." Conventional techniques for measuring these
    fatty acids involve collecting samples of whole blood -- something that
    many humans can relate to from doctor's visits. The samples can then be
    tested using the whole blood, or plasma or serum from the blood. However,
    all of these techniques require researchers to either freeze the blood
    samples very quickly after they are drawn or immediately process the
    sample. If frozen, the samples then won't be thawed until they reach a
    lab capable of performing the relevant tests.

    An alternative is "dry blood spot" sampling, or DBS. This technique
    requires only a few drops of whole blood, which are dried on specialized
    filter paper.

    DBS samples don't require immediate freezing, which is a big advantage -
    - particularly for researchers doing field work. DBS samples also take
    up much less space, since small pieces of paper take up substantially
    less room than freezer equipment containing vials of frozen blood.

    What's more, DBS also requires drawing much less blood from the
    animal. This is less stressful for the animal and can be important
    for the health of smaller animals when the blood amount available for collection is very limited.



    ========================================================================== However, there have been questions about the accuracy of DBS techniques
    when it comes to measuring fatty acids, particularly in non-human species.

    "We know DBS works well for DNA and protein testing," Wood says. "But
    fatty acids are less stable when exposed to air and ambient temperatures,
    so this was an open question. That's what we set out to address with this study." To that end, the researchers took whole blood, plasma, serum
    and DBS samples from six adult African elephants (Loxodonta africana)
    at the North Carolina Zoo. The researchers then processed each of the
    samples to see how they compared to each other.

    The researchers found that there were very few differences between
    whole blood and DBS samples, suggesting that elephant researchers can
    use DBS sampling techniques to assess omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids --
    and related animal health parameters- in both wild elephant populations
    and in managed elephant populations.

    "This is also tells us that we can compare data collected using whole
    blood samples to data collected from DBS samples -- it's comparing apples
    to apples, not apples to oranges," Wood says.

    What's more, the study found that fatty acid data from serum and plasma
    samples was closer to whole blood and DBS samples than the researchers anticipated.

    "They are not as close a match as the DBS samples were to whole blood
    samples, but they were fairly similar," Wood says. "This is useful,
    because it means we can make meaningful comparisons using historical data
    that was collected using plasma and serum samples. That's particularly important given that much of that historical data is on wild animal populations, helping us better understand how animal health may have
    shifted over time and under varying conditions.

    "We're hoping this work will enable the research and conservation
    community to collect more samples from wild populations, since it will
    be easier, less expensive and less stressful for the animals. That could
    help us better understand the health of wild populations and how that
    compares to the health of managed elephant populations. Ultimately,
    we think this can help us continue to improve diet and other
    conditions for managed elephant populations and other species." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    North_Carolina_State_University. Original written by Matt Shipman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Jordan Wood, Larry J. Minter, Doug Bibus, Michael K. Stoskopf, Vivek
    Fellner, Kimberly Ange-van Heugten. Comparison of African savanna
    elephant (Loxodonta africana) fatty acid profiles in whole blood,
    whole blood dried on blood spot cards, serum, and plasma. PeerJ,
    2021; 9: e12650 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12650 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124115029.htm

    --- up 7 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)