Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring
Nesting behavior in rodents, used to assess animal welfare/illness and instrumental tasks, is also proposed as valuable for disease monitoring, evaluating potential risk factors and interventions. The reliability of Deacon’s 5-point ordinal scale to score nests at 24 h is well-recognized. However, p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Medical Sciences Forum |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9992/8/1/9 |
| _version_ | 1797609865375383552 |
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| author | Lydia Giménez-Llort Ana María Ruiz de Molina-García |
| author_facet | Lydia Giménez-Llort Ana María Ruiz de Molina-García |
| author_sort | Lydia Giménez-Llort |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nesting behavior in rodents, used to assess animal welfare/illness and instrumental tasks, is also proposed as valuable for disease monitoring, evaluating potential risk factors and interventions. The reliability of Deacon’s 5-point ordinal scale to score nests at 24 h is well-recognized. However, previous work with the 3xTg-AD mice model of Alzheimer’s disease proposed a 3-day protocol to discard false negatives, thus unveiling genotype-, sex- and age-dependent differences. Here, we propose the size of nesting as a numeric variable, complementary to the ordinal scale, to allow parametric repeated measures analysis for identifying and evaluating temporal patterns in the nest-building process. Thus, nests of male and female mice with normal and AD-pathological aging ‘measured’ during 3-days showed that the nest-building process responded to a linear equation in wild-type animals or when female sex was considered but disrupted in males or the AD-genotype. Genotype per sex interaction indicated the optimal nest-building process in wild-type females, as they build the best nests at 72 h and the worst nests in 3xTg-AD mice at 48 h. On each day, data were consistent with the ordinal scale, but the identification of temporal patterns with the numeric variable confirmed nest-building as a complex process, which is sensitive to sex and genotype. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:06:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-91f311ebeec24b75b352ee1f7efc0ef6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:06:19Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Medical Sciences Forum |
| spelling | doaj.art-91f311ebeec24b75b352ee1f7efc0ef62023-11-17T12:56:33ZengMDPI AGMedical Sciences Forum2673-99922021-07-0181910.3390/IECBS2021-10685Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease MonitoringLydia Giménez-Llort0Ana María Ruiz de Molina-García1Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, SpainInstitut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, SpainNesting behavior in rodents, used to assess animal welfare/illness and instrumental tasks, is also proposed as valuable for disease monitoring, evaluating potential risk factors and interventions. The reliability of Deacon’s 5-point ordinal scale to score nests at 24 h is well-recognized. However, previous work with the 3xTg-AD mice model of Alzheimer’s disease proposed a 3-day protocol to discard false negatives, thus unveiling genotype-, sex- and age-dependent differences. Here, we propose the size of nesting as a numeric variable, complementary to the ordinal scale, to allow parametric repeated measures analysis for identifying and evaluating temporal patterns in the nest-building process. Thus, nests of male and female mice with normal and AD-pathological aging ‘measured’ during 3-days showed that the nest-building process responded to a linear equation in wild-type animals or when female sex was considered but disrupted in males or the AD-genotype. Genotype per sex interaction indicated the optimal nest-building process in wild-type females, as they build the best nests at 72 h and the worst nests in 3xTg-AD mice at 48 h. On each day, data were consistent with the ordinal scale, but the identification of temporal patterns with the numeric variable confirmed nest-building as a complex process, which is sensitive to sex and genotype.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9992/8/1/9environmentsocialnestingdaily life activitiesanimal welfaredisease monitoring |
| spellingShingle | Lydia Giménez-Llort Ana María Ruiz de Molina-García Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring Medical Sciences Forum environment social nesting daily life activities animal welfare disease monitoring |
| title | Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring |
| title_full | Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring |
| title_fullStr | Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring |
| title_short | Measuring Temporal Patterns of the Nest-Building Process in Mice for Animal Welfare and Disease Monitoring |
| title_sort | measuring temporal patterns of the nest building process in mice for animal welfare and disease monitoring |
| topic | environment social nesting daily life activities animal welfare disease monitoring |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9992/8/1/9 |
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