Infrared Thermography for Temperature Measurement in Adult Female C57BL/6NCrl Mice: A Comparison with Rectal Probe and Subcutaneous Transponder.

Body temperature is an easily measured clinical parameter that provides important information about an animal's health and welfare. In the context of animal experiments, temperature monitoring provides relevant data needed to manage animal care and has been embraced as a means of assessing humane endpoints. At the same time, temperature measurement in the sense of the 3Rs (Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction) should not cause any additional pain or distress to the animals. Therefore, the use of noninvasive, accurate, and cost-effective methods for temperature monitoring is of great importance in research laboratories. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy and consistency of different temperature measurement methods in black-haired C57BL/6NCrl mice. Body surface temperature measured by noninvasive infrared thermography was compared with established methods: subcutaneous and rectal temperature measurements. The study was conducted on 50 adult female mice, and measurements were taken for 5 d. Temperatures were measured using previously implanted subcutaneous temperature transponders, followed by infrared thermometry and rectal probes. The analyzed data showed that mouse temperature measurement using an infrared camera is an adequate method for noncontact and noninvasive temperature assessment in female C57BL/6NCrl mice and promotes laboratory animal welfare refinement.