Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2016, 8th- 10th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. III, No. 1s  ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

l 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keywords 

Term pregnancy, fetal fluids, 

cortisol, newborn outcome 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Barbara Bolis 

barbara.bolis@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf 

Cortisol fetal fluids concentrations and 

newborn outcome in term pregnancy 

small-sized purebred dogs. 

 

B. Bolis*b, T. Pericc, A. Rotab, Faustini Ma, Veronesi MCa 

 

aDepartment of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano 

bResident Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di 
Milano 

cDepartment of Food Sciences, University of Udine, Center for Biomedical 
Science and Engineering, University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia 

 

Abstract 

In order to provide further information about canine perinatology, and because of the scarce 

knowledge about fetal fluids composition in dogs, the present study was aimed to assess the cortisol 

concentrations in fetal fluids collected from small-sized purebred newborn puppies born by elective 

cesarean section, at term of pregnancy (Meloni et al, 2014). Furthermore we 

assessed possible correlations of amniotic and allantoic cortisol concentrations and newborn outcome 

at 24 hours of age  and with the newborn gender. Fetal fluids cortisol concentrations were also 

evaluated for correlation with maternal parity, litter-size, neonatal gender, birth weight and Apgar score 

(Veronesi et al, 2009). The study, performed on 50 born alive, normal weighed puppies, without gross 

physical malformation, showed that cortisol concentration was higher in allantoic than in amniotic fluid 

(p<0.01), even if a strong positive correlation between the two fluids cortisol concentration was found 

(p<0.0001; R=0.83). Interestingly, higher amniotic (p<0.05) cortisol concentrations were associated to 

puppies not surviving at 24 hours after birth. Therefore it could be suggested that this parameter may 

be useful for the recognition, at birth, of puppies needing special surveillance in the first day of age.  In 

relation to the other evaluated parameters, no correlations with amniotic or allantoic cortisol 

concentrations were found. In conclusion, the present results showed that in small-sized purebred 

puppies, born at term by elective caesarean section, the evaluation of amniotic cortisol concentration 

seems useful for the detection of puppies that need special surveillance during the first 24 hours of age, 

and should be coupled to the newborn evaluation by Apgar score. 

 

References 

Meloni T, Comin A, Rota A, Peric T, Contri A, Veronesi MC, 2014. IGF-I and NEFA concentrations in fetal fluids of term pregnancy 

dogs. Theriogenology,  2014;81:1307-11.  

Veronesi MC, Panzani S, Faustini M, Rota A, 2009. An Apgar scoring system for routine assessment of newborn puppy viability 

and short-term survival prognosis. Theriogenology; 2009; 72, 401–407. 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en