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.

本研究采用红外热成像技术（Infrared Thermography，简称IRT）对18只雄性和18只雌性大鼠（Rattus norvegicus）的连续表面温度进行测量，旨在探讨红外热成像技术在动物福利评估（包括IRT能否识别及量化动物福利状态）中的潜在应用。实验中，将大鼠分为三组，分别给予不同程度的奖励（零份、一份和三份甜谷物糕点或Cheerios），以确定大鼠对积极刺激强度增加的热反应比例性。将大鼠置于测试场域中，使其习惯化并录像30秒，在暴露于指定处理前及处理后30分钟，以获取个体基线温度和表面温度的变化，以及食物奖励引发的伴随行为。