Castration or sterilisation: a basic research oriented study to the effects of animal welfare and mate choice in guinea pigs

阉割或绝育：一项针对豚鼠动物福利和配偶选择影响的基础研究

• 批准号: 368707093
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Sylvia Kaiser
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung für Verhaltensbiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/368707093?language=en
• 关键词: Castration; sterilisation; basic; research; oriented

Castration or sterilisation: a basic research oriented study to the effects of ani-mal welfare and mate choice in guinea pigsAn uncontrolled reproduction of animals kept in captivity should be avoided. To meet this goal generally animals are castrated, i.e. the gonads are completely removed. Because of this procedure, sometimes also undesirable aggressive as well as courtship and sexual behaviour displayed by the animals can be reduced. These behavioural changes are in human interest. From the animal´s point of view, the question arises, however, whether sterilisation (a much less intense procedure, since gonads not removed, but only the transport of egg and sperm cells are prevented) could be better than a castration: in contrast to a sterilisation, a castration reduced the display of natural behavioural patterns. The project is part of basic research regarding animal welfare. The overall aim is to analyse the different effects of the two operations, castration and sterilisation on animal welfare. This is investigated in guinea pigs, a very well suitable animal model because of comprehensive studies in social behaviour, social organisation and animal welfare. We will work with the following basic experimental strategy: Groups consisting of one male and two intact females will be established and four different groups of males will be compared: castrated, sterilized, sham-operated and intact males. Furthermore, we will investigate the females, living together with the different treated males. As indicator for animal welfare of males and females, we will investigate socio-positive, agonistic and play behaviour as well as plasma cortisol concentrations. Additionally we will investigate whether females prefer sterilized or castrated males. In this project data are generated, which allow evidence based decisions regarding the question which operation (castration or sterilisation) should be conducted. Thus, the results of this project will contribute crucially to the question how to handle animals in captivity.

阉割或绝育：豚鼠的动物福利和配偶选择效应的基础研究应避免圈养动物的无节制繁殖。为了达到这一目标，通常动物被阉割，即性腺被完全切除。由于这种程序，有时也可以减少动物所表现出的不受欢迎的攻击性以及求偶和性行为。这些行为变化符合人类利益。从动物的角度来看，问题出现了，然而，绝育（一个强度小得多的过程，因为性腺没有被移除，但只是阻止了卵子和精子细胞的运输）是否比阉割更好：与绝育相反，阉割减少了自然行为模式的表现。该项目是关于动物福利的基础研究的一部分。总体目标是分析两种手术，阉割和绝育对动物福利的不同影响。这是在豚鼠中研究的，豚鼠是一种非常适合的动物模型，因为它对社会行为、社会组织和动物福利进行了全面的研究。我们将采用以下基本实验策略：将建立由1只雄性和2只完整雌性组成的组，并将比较4组不同的雄性：去势、绝育、假手术和完整雄性。此外，我们将调查与不同处理的雄性生活在一起的雌性。作为雄性和雌性动物福利的指标，我们将研究社会积极，竞争和游戏行为以及血浆皮质醇浓度。此外，我们将调查女性是否更喜欢绝育或阉割的男性。在该项目中，生成了数据，这些数据允许关于应该进行哪种手术（去势或绝育）的问题的基于证据的决定。因此，该项目的结果将对如何处理圈养动物的问题做出至关重要的贡献。