The Evaluation of the Rat Grimace Scale and Ultrasonic Vocalisations as Novel Pain Assessment Tools in Laboratory Rats
Date
2014-11-14
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Abstract
Measuring pain in non-human mammals such as rodents is challenging. Recently, spontaneous behaviours including facial expression and ultrasonic vocalisation have been proposed as novel, alternative measures of pain. The goal of this research was to evaluate the applicability of ultrasonic vocalisations, and the Rat Grimace Scale (a recently developed facial expression pain scale) during gas exposure (for euthanasia purposes) and in models of inflammatory and incisional pain. First, I found that ultrasonic vocalisations were emitted during carbon dioxide, but not during isoflurane exposure. Secondly, the Rat Grimace Scale was able to detect inflammatory and incisional pain in rats. Additionally, the pain score obtained using the Rat Grimace Scale corresponded with the findings of a conventional nociceptive test using von Frey filaments. My work contributes to the further understanding of ultrasonic communicative behaviour and facial expression of rats experiencing pain and the application of grimace scales in in-vivo biomedical research.
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Animal Physiology, Veterinary Science
Citation
De Rantere, D. (2014). The Evaluation of the Rat Grimace Scale and Ultrasonic Vocalisations as Novel Pain Assessment Tools in Laboratory Rats (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28137