Freie Universitaet Berlin, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Germany.
ALTEX. 2011;28(4):317-25. doi: 10.14573/altex.2011.4.317.
The 3Rs - Replacement, Reduction and Refinement - have become increasingly important in designing animal experiments. The Pavlov sling is thought to be a non-invasive method to restrain dogs for examinations. The aim of our study was to investigate whether laboratory Beagle dogs that had been trained to tolerate restraint by a Pavlov sling are stressed by this procedure and, furthermore, to analyze their behavior during this period. Five male and five female Beagle dogs were used, each three years of age. Animals were restrained in the Pavlov sling for 30 min on six days with an interval of at least two days. The following behaviors were recorded every minute for each session: postures of body, head, and ears, as well as state of eyes, tail, legs, and mouth. Additionally, the animals were observed for the occurrence of particular stress signs, including body shaking, sweating of the paws, increased saliva production, piloerection, blinking of eyes, snout licking, yawning, and panting. As an indicator for stress, salivary cortisol levels were measured before, during, and after each session. Our results show that for most behavioral parameters, e.g., body, leg, head, tail, and ear posture, the frequency of changes between different behavior patterns, as well as cortisol concentration, were not influenced by restraint in the Pavlov sling. Therefore, the Pavlov sling does not seem to be perceived as a stressful situation by the Beagle dogs. Our study demonstrates that under certain conditions the use of the Pavlov sling in trained dogs can substitute for more ordinary methods of immobilization, e.g., the use of narcotics.
3R 原则（替代、减少和优化）在动物实验设计中变得越来越重要。巴甫洛夫吊索被认为是一种非侵入性的方法，可以限制狗进行检查。我们的研究目的是调查经过巴甫洛夫吊索训练以耐受约束的实验室比格犬是否会因该程序而感到压力，并进一步分析它们在此期间的行为。使用了 5 只雄性和 5 只雌性比格犬，每只年龄均为 3 岁。动物在巴甫洛夫吊索中被限制 30 分钟，每天一次，间隔至少两天。以下行为在每一次会议中每分钟记录一次：身体、头部和耳朵的姿势，以及眼睛、尾巴、腿部和嘴巴的状态。此外，还观察了动物是否出现特定的应激迹象，包括身体颤抖、爪子出汗、唾液分泌增加、竖毛、眨眼、舔鼻、打哈欠和喘气。作为应激的指标，在每次会议之前、期间和之后测量唾液皮质醇水平。我们的结果表明，对于大多数行为参数，例如身体、腿部、头部、尾巴和耳朵姿势，不同行为模式之间的变化频率以及皮质醇浓度不受巴甫洛夫吊索约束的影响。因此，巴甫洛夫吊索似乎不会被比格犬视为紧张的情况。我们的研究表明，在某些条件下，在受过训练的狗中使用巴甫洛夫吊索可以替代更普通的固定方法，例如使用麻醉剂。
