It has been difficult to quantify stress in laboratory animals since they cannot be scored in response to certain questions because of their inability to talk.
I suggest that you consider piloerection, thigmokinesis and changed feeding habits.
Hi Bamidele,
are you considering stress 'in general' or stress during experiments? And in which species?
I mean, for sure one symptom of stressed rodents is that they don't mate properly, so you're in trouble with your breeding/maintenance program. In some strains (i.e. C57BL/6J), barbering is a clear indicator of stress. Stressed animals can become aggressive, too.
If we're talking about zebrafish, again, some of them can increase their aggressive behaviour and start cyrcling like crazy into the tank. Moreover, somehow, they become more susceptible to infections (ex. Mycobacterium spp. infections)
If you're talking about stress measurement during experiments, well most of the time people will tell you to measure cortisol levels, but it's not always easy!
Hope this helps!
Viola
Viola, thanks for your contribution. The animal of choice is albino rat. All what you pointed out are signs manifested by the stressed animals. How do we turn these to quantitative data. I agree with the measurement of cortisol levels in the animals. How do I measure its level?
There are quite a few papers on measurement of corticosterone in urine and feces
Another way to 'measure' stress in rats is their general body language and behavior patterns. Indications are: Small body posture (ie crawled in a small ball), lack of grooming, quiet behavior, absence of exploration behavior (sniffing,climbing, foraging), reduced amounts of food that has been eaten, agression shown to each other or, as mentioned above, reduced mating results.
Hope this was helpful,
With kind regards
How can you quantify stress response in rats?
Response to acute stress?
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