Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats.

完善挠痒方案以改善实验室大鼠的积极动物福利。

• 批准号: NC/W001209/1
• 负责人: Alistair Lawrence
• 金额: $ 38.92万
• 依托单位: Scotland's Rural College
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NC%2FW001209%2F1
• 关键词: Refinement; tickling; protocols; improve; positive

Positive animal welfare emphasises the importance of animals having positive experiences to improve their quality of life. For laboratory rats, tickling is proposed as an effective and practical way to positively improve their welfare. Rat tickling with the human hand was developed to study positive emotions (affect) and ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) in rats by mimicking playful interactions between rats. The standard tickling protocol involves initial finger contact with the nape of the neck before flipping the rat and gently pinning it in a supine position whilst making rapid finger movements just like in human tickling. Research including our own, has shown that when rats are tickled by a human hand they often produce 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) which are thought to indicate positive affect in rats. Generally, rats find tickling rewarding as tickled rats are quicker to approach the human hand and can be trained to perform a task for tickling. However, our own research experience of rat tickling, and other available evidence, shows that rats, like humans, vary considerably in their response to tickling. This suggests that there is a risk that some rats perceive tickling as a negative experience depending on how tickling is performed and the rats' individual characteristics. From our data, we estimate that approximately 20% of rats may find tickling a negative experience. This calls for refinement of tickling protocols to ensure that the positive effects of tickling are maximised and to minimise individual differences in response to tickling. Our overall aim is to increase the uptake of rat tickling as a widely used approach to improving the welfare of the approximately 180k rats used annually in the UK for research purposes. Within this overarching aim, we propose to refine the tickling protocol by measuring male and female rats' affective responses to tickling. To encourage wider uptake of tickling we will study implications of tickling for experimental repeatability and work with end-users to identify and constraints to use of tickling in practice.Within this overall aim, we will test how different styles of tickling affect the emotional response of rats using recordings of USVs and our validated test of emotional bias. Our hypothesis is that rats will show a more uniform increase in indicators of positive emotion with a 'playful tickling protocol' that emphasises playful interaction between the human hand and the rat, and which also minimises the use of pinning relative to the standard protocol. We also hypothesise that the biological consequences of tickling will be less variable using a playful protocol relative to the standard protocol. This will refine and increase the repeatability of research where tickling is applied either as a standard enrichment or as an experimental treatment. To test this rats will be exposed to a further tickling sessions of their allocated treatment using USV production to assess their emotional responses. After a final tickling session we will contrast the variability in emotional response to the tickling regimes against response measures such as behavioural anxiety and physiological markers for stress and inflammation. In our third objective, we will engage with researchers (who use rats in their work) locally, nationally and internationally to determine the potential of applying tickling as a valid and practical form of positive social enrichment in their laboratories. Our communication plan includes development of a web-site and forming a stakeholder group to understand constraints to use of tickling in practice and to gather data on the wider use of tickling as a research treatment or as a social enrichment.

积极的动物福利强调动物拥有积极的经验以改善其生活质量的重要性。对于实验室大鼠，挠痒痒被认为是积极改善其福利的有效和实用的方法。通过模仿大鼠之间的嬉戏互动，开发了用人手挠大鼠痒痒以研究大鼠的积极情绪（情感）和超声发声（USV）。标准的挠痒痒方案包括在翻转大鼠之前手指与颈背的初始接触，并轻轻地将其固定在仰卧位，同时进行快速的手指运动，就像在人类挠痒痒中一样。包括我们自己在内的研究表明，当老鼠被人类的手挠痒痒时，它们通常会产生50 kHz的超声波发声（USV），这被认为表明老鼠的积极影响。一般来说，老鼠发现挠痒痒是有回报的，因为被挠痒痒的老鼠更快地接近人类的手，并且可以被训练来执行挠痒痒的任务。然而，我们自己对老鼠挠痒痒的研究经验和其他现有证据表明，老鼠和人类一样，对挠痒痒的反应有很大差异。这表明，根据挠痒痒的执行方式和大鼠的个体特征，存在一些大鼠将挠痒痒视为负面体验的风险。根据我们的数据，我们估计大约20%的大鼠可能会发现挠痒痒是一种负面的体验。这就要求完善挠痒痒方案，以确保挠痒痒的积极作用最大化，并最大限度地减少个体差异对挠痒痒的反应。我们的总体目标是增加大鼠搔痒的吸收，作为一种广泛使用的方法，以改善英国每年用于研究目的的约18万只大鼠的福利。在这一总体目标，我们建议通过测量雄性和雌性大鼠的情感反应，以完善挠痒痒协议。为了鼓励更广泛地吸收挠痒痒，我们将研究挠痒痒对实验重复性的影响，并与最终用户合作，以确定和限制在实践中使用挠痒痒。在这个总体目标内，我们将测试不同风格的挠痒痒如何影响大鼠的情绪反应，使用USV的录音和我们验证的情绪偏见测试。我们的假设是，大鼠将表现出更均匀的积极情绪的指标增加与“好玩的挠痒痒协议”，强调人类的手和大鼠之间的好玩的互动，这也最大限度地减少使用钉相对于标准协议。我们还假设，相对于标准协议，使用好玩的协议，搔痒的生物后果将是可变的。这将改善和增加研究的可重复性，其中搔痒被用作标准富集或实验治疗。为了测试这一点，将使用USV产生将大鼠暴露于其分配的处理的进一步挠痒痒阶段，以评估其情绪反应。在最后一次挠痒痒后，我们将对比挠痒痒制度的情绪反应的变化与反应措施，如行为焦虑和压力和炎症的生理标志物。在我们的第三个目标中，我们将与当地、国内和国际上的研究人员（他们在工作中使用老鼠）合作，以确定在他们的实验室中将挠痒痒作为一种有效和实用的积极社会充实形式的潜力。我们的沟通计划包括开发一个网站，并形成一个利益相关者小组，以了解在实践中使用挠痒的限制，并收集更广泛地使用挠痒作为研究治疗或作为社会丰富的数据。