Mann T M, Williams K E, Pearce P C, Scott E A M
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Dstl Porton Down, Porton, Salisbury SP4 0JQ, UK.
Lab Anim. 2005 Apr;39(2):169-77. doi: 10.1258/0023677053739783.
Patterns of spontaneous activity are valuable reflections of well-being in animals and humans and, because of this, investigations have frequently incorporated some form of activity monitoring into their studies. It is widely believed that activity monitoring, alongside assessments of general behaviour, should be included in initial CNS safety pharmacology screening. As the number of marmoset studies having actimetry as their focus, or as an adjunct, is increasing, we wished to evaluate an alternative approach to those commonly used. The method is based on miniaturized accelerometer technologies, currently used for human activity monitoring.Actiwatch-Minis were used to monitor the activity of two groups of differently housed marmosets for 14 consecutive days. Group A consisted of four mixed-sex pairs of animals and group B comprised eight group-housed males. Activity profiles were generated for weekday and weekend periods. The devices captured quantifiable data which showed differences in total activity between the two differently housed groups and revealed intragroup variations in the temporal spread of activity between weekdays and weekends. The Actiwatch-Mini has been shown to generate retrospective, data-logged activity counts recorded from multiple animals in a single arena by means of non-invasive monitoring.
自发活动模式是动物和人类健康状况的重要反映，因此，研究中经常将某种形式的活动监测纳入其中。人们普遍认为，活动监测以及一般行为评估应纳入中枢神经系统安全性药理学的初始筛选中。随着以活动测量法为重点或作为辅助手段的狨猴研究数量不断增加，我们希望评估一种不同于常用方法的替代方法。该方法基于目前用于人类活动监测的小型加速度计技术。使用Actiwatch-Minis连续14天监测两组饲养方式不同的狨猴的活动。A组由四对不同性别的动物组成，B组由八只群居雄性动物组成。生成了工作日和周末期间的活动概况。这些设备获取了可量化的数据，显示了两组饲养方式不同的动物在总活动量上的差异，并揭示了工作日和周末期间组内活动时间分布的变化。Actiwatch-Mini已被证明能够通过非侵入性监测生成来自单个实验场地中多只动物的回顾性数据记录活动计数。
