Rat thermal and behavioural respones to food reward magnitudes

I used infrared thermography (IRT) to collect continuous surface temperature measurements of 18 male and 18 female rats (Rattus norvegicus) to investigate the possible application of IRT in positive animal welfare assessments ( whether IRT can identify as well as quantify positive welfare states). Three groups of rats were given increasing magnitudes of rewards (zero, one and three sweet cereal pallets or Cheerios) to determine a potential proportionality thermal response of rats to the increasing intensity of a positive stimuli. Rats were placed in a test arena to which they were habituated and filmed for 30 seconds before and 30 minutes after being exposed to the designated treatments, to obtain individual baseline temperatures and changes in surface temperature as well as concurrent behaviours in response to food reward.