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The non-invasive monitoring of physiological stress can provide conservation and wildlife managers with an invaluable tool for assessing animal welfare and psychological health of captive and free-ranging populations. A significant decrease in free-ranging primate populations globally and an increase in captive-housed primates have led to a need to monitor the stress and general welfare of these animals. We examined the suitability of three enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for monitoring stress-related physiological responses in the samango monkey, Cercopithecus albogularis erythrarchus. We conducted an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge on a male and female at the National Zoological Garden, Pretoria, South Africa. Individual faecal samples were collected 8 days pre- and post-ACTH administration and subsequently analysed for faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations. During the study, biological stressors occurred for both the male and female. Two of the three EIAs tested (11-oxoetiocholanolone I and II) were able to reliably monitor fGCM alterations throughout the study period in both sexes. The 11-oxoetiocholanolone I EIA, however, had the lowest mean deviation from the calculated baseline value and was thus chosen as the preferred assay. Both the physiological activation of the stress response and the biological response to a stressor could be monitored with the chosen assay. The successful establishment of a reliable, non-invasive method for monitoring adrenocortical activity in C. albogularis erythrarchus will now allow conservationists, scientific researchers and wildlife managers to evaluate the level of stress experienced, and general welfare, by animals in captivity as well as free-ranging populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

À l'heure du big data et de l'intelligence artificielle, la biologie médicale se restructure autour d'outils informatiques performants tels que Valab® : logiciel expert d'aide à la validation que le laboratoire de biologie médicale (LBM) Cerballiance Provence a choisi d'installer en 2017. L'enjeu de l'automatisation de la validation biologique dans un LBM multisite est d'obtenir un paramétrage unique conforme aux expertises des différents biologistes. Avec un groupe de six biologistes porteurs du projet et accompagnés par les spécialistes de la société Valab, une organisation centrée sur la communication et la confrontation des pratiques de validation des 55 biologistes lors d'un contrôle continu, le projet a abouti à un consensus biologique : en première intention, 0,56 % des dossiers expertisés par Valab n'étaient pas conformes à l'expertise du biologiste et ont nécessité une modification de paramétrage. La validation automatique par Valab® permet de libérer du temps biologique pour des missions à forte valeur ajoutée. De quoi ouvrir les esprits des biologistes à de futures pratiques de notre spécialité assistée de nouveaux outils informatiques. With the rise of big data and artificial intelligence, a new era has come for medical biology leading to new Information Technology (IT) tools. In 2017, the Medical Biology Laboratory of Cerballiance Provence has installed an innovative new expert IT tool called Valab®. Valab® is an IT software that validates automatically most of the biological tests. A group of six expert biologists were in charge of the design, installation and organization of this software in the Lab in which overall 55 biologists practice. Continuous monitoring improved communication and provide confrontation of expertise and finally lead to a biological consensus: 0,56 % of the tests needed to be redesigned. All biologists were rapidly convinced by Valab®, which was time saving. New IT devices and software are already taking place in our daily biology practices. They are time saving and improved quality of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]