Telemetry implant system to collect and analyze physiological data on free-moving animals

申请者进行研究，以改善在人类护理下的动物的健康和福利，降低动物源食品的生产成本，增加动物产品的价值，减少废物产量和畜牧业生产的环境足迹。圭尔夫大学动物生物学研究人员的一项新的跨学科倡议涉及到精确的牲畜管理，利用自动、连续和远程收集的大量关于单个动物及其环境的数据，来对个体管理干预措施做出软件支持的决策，如饲料输送的时间和数量、照明计划、通风率、牛舍的隔离模式等。所需的设备是一个遥测植入系统，该系统可以自动、连续地收集最多16只动物的体温、血压、心率、运动神经元活动和间质葡萄糖浓度的数据，并将数据无线传输到计算机。这种不插手感知内部状态的方法允许监测自由活动、有意识的动物的生理，而不会引起典型的采样程序的压力，包括约束或针刺。这一功能对于研究恐惧和恐慌反应特别有用，这是改善动物福利所必需的。抽样期间的应激反应也可能混淆生理状态的评估，这在评估各种营养或环境干预措施的质量时是一个令人担忧的问题。此外，通过遥测植入物收集时间进程数据的能力是有价值的，因为与单一测量相比，信息密度增加了。所需设备将用于12名研究生(10名硕士+8名博士)和3名PDF的培训和研究活动，以及未来5年的17名研究生和众多本科生。生物传感器在农业中的应用迅速增加，需要熟悉该设备及其开发的HQP。

The applicants conduct research to improve the health and welfare of animals under human care, reduce costs of production of foods of animal origin, increase the value of animal products, and reduce waste outputs and the environmental footprint of livestock production. A new interdisciplinary initiative among animal biology researchers at the University of Guelph is related to precision livestock management, where large volumes of data collected automatically, continuously and remotely on individual animals and their environment are used to make software-supported decisions on individual management interventions like timing and amount of feed delivery, lighting schedule, ventilation rate, segregation patterns in a barn, etc. The requested equipment is a telemetry implant system that automatically and continuously collects, and wirelessly transmits to a computer, data on body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, motor neuron activity, and interstitial glucose concentration from up to 16 animals simultaneously. The hands-off approach to sensing of internal state allows physiology of free-moving, conscious animals to be monitored without inducing stress typical of sampling procedures involving restraint or needle puncture. This feature is particularly useful for studying fear and panic responses, which is necessary to improve animal welfare. Stress responses during sampling may also confound assessments of physiological state, which is a concern when evaluating the quality of various nutritional or environmental interventions. Further, the ability to collect time course data with telemetry implants is valuable because of the increased density of information compared to a single measure. The requested equipment will contribute to training and research activities of 12 graduate students (10 MSc + 8 PhD) and 3 PDF now, and 17 graduate students and numerous undergraduates over the coming 5 years. The rapidly growing use of biosensors in agriculture is generating a need for HQP familiar with the equipment and its exploitation.