Christie Kimberly M, Barnhard Jennifer A, Otto Cynthia M, Mallikarjun Amritha, Wilson Clara, Levine David, Tringali Ashley A, Payne Chelsea E, Langenbach Anke, Brunke Matthew W
Veterinary Surgical Centers, Vienna, VA, United States.
Tactical Veterinary Solutions LLC, Cabin John, MD, United States.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Oct 17;11:1431855. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1431855. eCollection 2024.
This study aimed to evaluate the agreement between explosive detection dog (EDD) handlers and a team of veterinarians in assessing body condition score (BCS) and muscle condition score (MCS), hypothesizing significant BCS differences between handlers and veterinarians, and no significant MCS differences in healthy active duty EDDs.
This prospective study analyzed variance and inter-rater intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of agreement within BCS and MCS assessments collected from the 43 EDDs by four blinded graders; the EDDs' respective handler and three veterinarians with varying levels of veterinary expertise.
The results of the study showed that 74.4% of the EDD population was graded as ideal BCS (4 or 5 out of 9) by the handlers compared to 67.44% by the members of the veterinary team; however, the graders scored different subsets of individual EDDs as ideal. Normal MCS (3 out of 3) was assessed in 86.05% ( = 37) of EDDs by the handlers versus in 70.54% by the veterinary team.
This study highlights the importance of standardized training and guidelines for BCS and MCS assessments in working dogs to improve agreement between all members of the healthcare team.
本研究旨在评估爆炸物检测犬（EDD）训练员与一组兽医在评估身体状况评分（BCS）和肌肉状况评分（MCS）方面的一致性，假设训练员和兽医之间BCS存在显著差异，而健康现役EDD的MCS无显著差异。
这项前瞻性研究分析了由四名盲法评分者从43只EDD收集的BCS和MCS评估中的方差和评分者间组内相关系数（ICC）；这些EDD各自的训练员和三名具有不同兽医专业水平的兽医。
研究结果显示，训练员将74.4%的EDD群体评为理想BCS（9分制中的4或5分），而兽医团队成员的这一比例为67.44%；然而，评分者将不同的EDD个体子集评为理想状态。训练员评估86.05%（n = 37）的EDD为正常MCS（3分制中的3分），而兽医团队的这一比例为70.54%。
本研究强调了为工作犬的BCS和MCS评估制定标准化培训和指南对于提高医疗团队所有成员之间一致性的重要性。
