Chronic exposure to multiple stressors alters the salivary proteome of piglets

ABSTRACT: Monitoring chronic stress in pigs is not only essential in view of animal welfare but is also important for the farmer given stress influences the zootechnical performance of the pigs and increases their susceptibility to infectious diseases. Saliva analysis could be a non-invasive, objective evaluation tool to asses stress levels. To investigate the use of saliva as a stress monitoring tool, twenty-four 4-day-old piglets were transferred to artificail brooders. At the age of 7 days, they were assigend to either the control or the stressed group and reared for three weeks. Piglets in the stressed group were exposed to overcrowding, absence of cage enrichment, and frequent mixing between pens. Shotgun analysis using an isobaric labelling method (iTRAQ) for tandem mass spectrometry performed on saliva samples taken after three weeks of chronic stress identified 392 proteins of which 20 proteins displayed siginifcantly altered concentrations. From these 20 proteins, eight were selected for further validation using parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). For this validation, additional saliva samples were taken after one week, and the samples that were taken three weeks after the start of the experiment were analysed to verify the profile over time. This targeted PRM analysis confiremd that alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein was upregulated in the stressed group after one and three weeks while odorant-binding protein, chitinase, long palate lung and nasal epithelium protein 5, lipocalin-1, and vomeromodulin-like protein were present in lower concentrations in saliva of the stressed pigs, albeit only after three weeks. These results indicate that the porcine salivary proteome is altered by chronic exposure to multiple stressors. The affected proteins could be used as salivary biomarkers to identify welfare problems at the farm and facilitate research to optimise rearing conditions.

INSTRUMENT(S): Q Exactive

ORGANISM(S): Sus Scrofa Domesticus (domestic Pig)

TISSUE(S): Saliva

SUBMITTER: Sara Prims  

LAB HEAD: Chris Van Ginneken

PROVIDER: PXD037193 | Pride | 2023-06-12

REPOSITORIES: Pride