ADAPTIVE METABOLIC RESPONSES IN FEMALES OF THE FIGHTING BREED SUBMITTED TO DIFFERENT SEQUENCES OF STRESS STIMULI

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the stress reaction and the metabolic adaptive effort in females of the fighting breed when su bmitted to different manipulation sequences. Nine 4- to 8-year-old bov ine fighting breed females were slaughtered to establish the basal lev els of different blood parameters. A study was, then, conducted to exa mine the metabolic response in 30 2-year-old females, divided into 3 g roups of 10 animals and submitted to different manipulations in each g roup: restraint-''open-field''-restraint, ''open-field''-restraint, an d transportation-restraint-''open-field''-restraint. The basal levels of the different blood parameters found were, in general, similar to t he levels for cattle given in the literature. All the manipulations re sulted in increases that were statistically different (p < 0.001) from basal levels, in terms of both cortisol plasma levels and the Specie Specific Experimental Response to Stress index (SSERTS). The stress of restraint (and the prior manipulations) seemed to mask the stress ass ociated with the open-field and transport situations. In general, anim als responded to 13 of the 15 parameters examined in the various exper imental manipulations.