Remote Welfare Monitoring of Rodents Using Thermal Imaging

Abstract

Animal research has always played a crucial role in various medical and scientific breakthroughs. They offer, inter alia, insights into diseases mechanisms, genetic predisposition to a disease, and drug therapy. However, the use of animals for medical research is a cause of major controversies and debates in modern science. To warrant high bioethical standards, new directives have been being adopted to replace animal research whenever possible, to reduce the number of animals, and to refine the procedures to minimize stress and pain. Here, we present two new approaches, based on thermal imaging (a remote and passive technology), to assess respiratory rate (RR) as well as exploratory behavior and general activity in rodents. In animal research, these parameters are gold standards for welfare assessment. The approaches were validated in a study conducted with both rats and mice. To test the feasibility of our algorithm to estimate RR, thermal videos from anesthetized rodents were acquired. The capability of the second approach to monitor activity was tested with videos of Open Field tests. Regarding RR, a high agreement between thermal imaging and gold standard (electrocardiography-derived RR) was achieved. The mean relative error averaged 0.50 ± 0.15 breaths/min and 4.55 ± 2.94 breaths/min for rats and mice, respectively. The second approach was capable of monitoring and tracking the activity of the rodents very well. This paper demonstrates that thermal imaging is a promising and relevant alternative for monitoring of RR and activity in rodents, thus contributing to the remote assessment of animal welfare.

Inexpensive Home Infrared Living/Environment Sensor with Regional Thermal Information for Infant Physical and Psychological Development

“…Place preference has often been used as an estimate of motivation [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Here we defined time spent near the door of the cage (biological door preference [ 29 ]) as an indication of the animals’ motivation to explore outside of the home environment. To determine BD at the preliminary screening and to evaluate if a certain circadian periodicity emerged autonomously in double plots of the four subjects when averaging the data, while the XY position would rather reveal the common oscillation less in the individuals, we divided the floor of the home cage evenly into two areas: the door side and the opposite side and determined time spent in each half of the cage.…”

“…In rodents, multiple methods are available for continuous monitoring of position and locomotion (e.g., [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]); however, in primates such model studies for humans to date have required instrumentation of animals [ 31 ] or could not be performed in the home environment [ 32 ]. Therefore, we developed a low-cost infrared (IR) technology-based location/motion, body surface temperature and surrounding ambient temperature detection system and analysis algorithm that can be used non-invasively for long-term studies of our primates in the home environment.…”

Non-contact thermography-based respiratory rate monitoring in a post-anesthetic care unit

“…Our approach was based on previous attempts to measure RR thermographically in rodents [ 8 ] and healthy volunteers [ 9 ]. Based on the description by Pereira et al [ 10 ], we developed a temperature change algorithm and implemented it in LabVIEW vision tools (Ver.…”

Estimating Departure Time Using Thermal Camera and Heat Traces Tracking Technique

“…Thermal imaging technology is a kind of passive imaging technology [7,8]. Under some certain conditions, it can fully exert its technical advantages and form an advantage complementarity with other technologies to assist in the detection of difficult cases [9].…”