Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) - Vetsuisse ...

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Procedure and MeasurementsProcedureIn week 0, at weaning, hamsters were approximately 4 weeks of age. During theexperiment they were weighed repeatedly (Fig. 1). The body length (snout to tip oftail) was measured before termination on the anaesthetized animal, which wasstretched out on a ruler. The body condition of the hamsters was calculated as bodyweight in proportion to body length (body weight in week 13/length 3 ), which is adegree of fat tissue. Hamsters were video-taped, between 15:30 and 18:30 p.m., i.e.2:30 hours after dawn (Fig. 1). In weeks 11 and 12 each hamster was stressed ontwo following days by shaking the cage, chasing, handling, habitation in a smallcardboard box for 30 minutes and loud music for three to five minutes. Additionallyon the first day of stress half of the litter was changed, while on the second day aconfrontation with another hamster was performed. Thirteen weeks after weaninghamsters were decapitated after Isoflurane-anaesthesia. Blood was collected andsent to Alomed, Analytical Laboratory Dr. W. Müller, (Germany), for analyses ofcorticosterone, cortisol and ACTH. Organs (adrenals, heart, liver, kidney and spleen)were weighed and checked for differences in the 4 cage sizes. Special attention wasgiven to the weights of adrenals as an indicator of stress. Gastric mucosa wascontrolled for ulcers. All brains were examined for hydrocephalus internus.9
weaningvideorecordingvideorecording0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13Project-weekvideorecording▼* * **▼**end ofproject*body weight▼stress application**blood collection and autopsyFig. 1 Time table of the experiment. The stress treatment was conducted over 2 weeks.Running-wheel activityRevolutions of running wheels were constantlyregistered by the Chronobiology Kit (StanfordSoftware Systems). For the analysis of the runningwheelactivity we used the median of the dailyrevolutions until week 10, before the hamsters werestressed. From time to time some hamsters blockedthe running-wheel with litter and in some cases therunning-wheel was not functioning or the transmission of data failed. These datawere excluded from the analyses. Furthermore, all running-wheel data of onehamster from cage size 2 was excluded because the transmission of the runningwheeldata failed consistently. For analyses of the effects of stress the mean numberof revolutions of the 2 days during stress, as well as 2 days before and 2 days afterstress, were analysed.10
Page 1 and 2: Institut für Genetik, Ernährung u
Page 3 and 4: Table of contentPage1 Zusammenfassu
Page 5 and 6: eingerichtet. Die Laufradaktivität
Page 7 and 8: 2 Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mes
Page 9 and 10: IntroductionHamsters are common lab
Page 11: MethodsAnimals and housing conditio
Page 15 and 16: ResultsBehaviourHamsters devoted mo
Page 17 and 18: Tab. 2 Post-hoc comparisons of runn
Page 19 and 20: GroomingAll hamsters were observed
Page 21 and 22: Open spaceUsage of open space was p
Page 23 and 24: Stress hormones and organsNeither s
Page 25 and 26: directed exploration, which, after
Page 27 and 28: top wire. Some hamsters used to cli
Page 29 and 30: Autopsies of the three hamsters tha
Page 31 and 32: ReferencesBantin G.C. and Sanders P
Page 33 and 34: Sherwin C.M., 1998. Voluntary wheel
Page 35 and 36: 3 CAN WE TELL HAMSTERS ARE STRESSED
Page 37 and 38: IntroductionConcentrations of gluco
Page 39 and 40: The experiments were approved by th
Page 41 and 42: ResultsMales had generally higher v
Page 43 and 44: Fig. 1 The concentration of cortiso
Page 45 and 46: ACTHLevels of ACTH were significant
Page 47 and 48: ACTH-Challenge TestIn the ACTH-chal
Page 49 and 50: negative feedback of cortisol: incr
Page 51 and 52: ConclusionsSince the stress respons
Page 53 and 54: Kuhnen, G., Werner, R. 1998. Plasma
Page 55 and 56: 4 AppendixApp. I Cage size 1 (right
Page 57 and 58: App. IV Behaviour catalogue. Descri
Page 59: 5 DanksagungenIch möchte allen dan

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