Validation of a commercial ELISA kit to measure 11-oxoetiocholanolone in equine and bovine feces.

This research aims to validate the use of a commercially available ELISA kit to measure the levels of a cortisol metabolite called 11-oxoetiocholanolone in horse and cattle feces, which could offer a stress-free and easily collectible means of assessing hormonal health in these animals.

Background and Purpose

• Scientists sought to prove the effectiveness and reliability of a commercial ELISA kit for measuring 11-oxoetiocholanolone in equine and bovine feces. Until this study, the measurement of this hormone metabolite was performed only by an in-house enzyme immunoassay (EIA).
• Hormone metabolites in feces can provide valuable information about the animal’s hormonal health over medium-to-long times, and collecting feces is relatively easy and stress-free for the animal.
• The kit tested had already been validated on sheep feces and human urine, and the team aimed to extend this validation to horse and cattle feces.

Methodology and Findings

• The ELISA kit was used to measure 11-oxoetiocholanolone from the feces of 42 horses and 32 bulls.
• The tests showed that the kit had good precision, as evidenced by low coefficient of variations (CVs) for intra- and inter-assay measurements. Specifically, CVs were reported at 5.8% and 11.2% for horse feces, and 9.9% and 11.2% for cattle feces.
• The kit also had a solid analytical sensitivity of 0.186 ng/mL for both horse and cattle feces, meaning it was able to detect low concentrations of the metabolite in the samples.
• The accuracy of the kit was demonstrated by successful parallelism and recovery tests, which showed that it accurately determined the concentration of 11-oxoetiocholanolone in the feces of both species.
• The detected concentrations of 11-oxoetiocholanolone ranged from 1-109 ng/g in horse feces and 40-302 ng/g in cattle feces.

Conclusions

• The results of this study demonstrate that the Cayman Chemical ELISA kit can accurately and reliably measure concentrations of 11-oxoetiocholanolone in horse and cattle feces.
• This means that the kit offers a straightforward and readily available choice for the analysis of this cortisol metabolite in the feces of these animals, which could lead to improvements in animal health monitoring and management.