VBB 2012 Abstracts

Full Papers Short Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Research Vivarium Design Considerations Optimizing and Supporting Biosignal, Biodevice, and Biomedical Engineering
Authors:

Patrick Sharp
Abstract: Contemporary biomedical research supporting biosignal, biodevice, and biomedical engineering will be conducted in either new or remodeled animal facilities. It is important for researchers, veterinarians, and architects to have a better understanding of each other’s needs when considering new or remodeled facilities; especially in light of new regulatory and voluntary compliance standards. Contemporary facilities are more than ‘animal warehouses,’ they play an integral part of the research program by offering procedure and research support facilities. By maintaining the animals in the controlled environment found in the vivarium, fewer research variables are introduced (e.g., transportation, disease). The presentation will offer insights on facility needs, design considerations, and potential pitfalls to the attendees. The cost of contemporary animal facilities is more expensive than most institutions anticipate, but can be properly managed; the importance of life cycle cost will also be discussed.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

The Value of a New Cancer Biomarker fHER-2 Proto-oncogene in the Diagnosis of Feline Mammary Carcinoma
Authors:

Maria Soares, Jorge Correia, José Cabeçadas, Conceição Peleteiro and Fernando Ferreira
Abstract: The overexpression of the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor-2 (HER-2) oncogene in human breast cancer is associated with a poor prognosis and a specific treatment. Because of its importance and as a first line option for diagnosis, well established guidelines for its detection are based in immunohistochemical techniques, Still, in Veterinary Medicine there is little and inconsistent information about this subject. The aim of our study was to achieve an optimal immunohistochemical protocol for detection of fHER-2 in Feline Mammary Carcinoma (FMC). Five commercial anti-HER-2 antibodies were tested using three different protocols. The fHER-2 protein overexpression was detected in 10 of the 30 FMC cases (33.3%), when the optimized protocol was performed (associating the A0485 antibody with a longer antigen retrieval method). These results suggest that fHER-2 may play an important role in Feline Oncology and that the Cat can be a suitable animal model for human breast cancer research.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Blood Propofol Concentrations: On Demand for Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamics Models and New Measurement Automatic Technologies
Authors:

S. Campos, A. Silva, P. G. de Pinho and L. Antunes
Abstract: Propofol is a widespread anaesthetic agent in human medicine. It allows the practice of total intravenous anaesthesia through the use of sophisticated delivery systems due to its pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamics properties. Three New Zealand White rabbits were anaesthetized with three different infusion rates (70, 100, 130 mg.kg-1.h-1) in a random order, during thirty minutes each. Clinical parameters as well as arterial blood samples were collected at specific time points. Rugloop II Vet software was used to storage all data and to predict the propofol concentrations during the anaesthetic period. A correlation analysis was done between real and predicted propofol concentrations, in each infusion rate. It was only observed a significant correlation between concentrations during the lower infusion rate (70 mg.kg-1.h-1). There is a lack of automatic devices and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics models that allow a real-time or predicted measurement of the propofol concentrations in the patient, for veterinary medicine.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

Identification of Behaviour of Weaner Pigs in the Early Phase of Aggressive Interaction for the Development of an Automatic Monitoring System of Pig Aggression
Authors:

Maciej Oczak, Gunel Ismailova, Lilia Thays Sonoda, Michaela Fels, Joerg Hartung, Marcella Guarino, Stefano Viazzi, Daniel Berckmans and Erik Vranken
Abstract: Aggressive behaviour among pigs results in negative consequences, reducing health and welfare of animals as well as production output of a farm. In order to develop an automatic monitoring system that monitors and controls pig aggression, an experiment was carried out. The aim of the experiment was to analyze sequences in pig aggressive behaviour. 52 aggressive sequences were observed during the experiment in on farm observations. Behaviour that started the aggressive sequences the most often was nose to nose interaction. 22 out of 52 aggressive sequences started with this behaviour. Head to head knocking was classified as a second most frequent starting behaviour with 13 head to head knocks starting aggressive interactions. Nose to nose interaction and head to head knocking behaviours in most cases started aggressive interactions between animals. Automatic detection of these behaviours might allow early detection of aggression among pigs.
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Paper Nr: 13
Title:

Cough Sound Acoustics and Environmental Agents in Modern Swine Farming
Authors:

S. Ferrari, A. Costa, C. Gusmara, V. Sala and M. Guarino
Abstract: Cough sound analysis has been performed in this research for fattening swine respiratory disease assessments. In particular, here are investigated the abiotic environmental factors predisposing animals to diseases. From cough sound recording during 4 fattening cycles it has been possible to evaluate the dynamics both of respiratory diseases and of cough sounds. The bioacoustic analysis investigated features like sound duration, amplitude and frequency and it has been combined with environmental recordings of temperature, relative humidity, gaseous ammonia and particulate matter concentrations. A serological screening has been also performed to evaluate the animal’s non specific immunity, useful to evaluate how farming conditions may affect animals welfare and health. The correlations of all parameters allowed estimation of the weight of every factor on the type of respiratory disease and estimation of which are useful acoustics parameters to be monitored for early diagnosis of respiratory hazards.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Effect of Two Doses of Dexmedetomidine on Index of Consciousness and Permutation Entropy in Rabbits
Authors:

Aura Silva, Almir P. Souza, Carlos Venâncio, David A. Ferreira and Luis Antunes
Abstract: The Index of Consciousness (IoC) and the Permutation Entropy (PE) are the most recent EEG-based indexes for depth of anesthesia monitoring but their use during ketamine or dexmedetomidine anesthesia has never been reported. In this study, the ability of these measures o differentiate between the effects of two different doses of dexmedetomidine combined with a fixed dose of ketamine in rabbits was studied. Five adult female rabbits received one of two ketamine/dexmedetomidine com-binations (15/0.025 and 15/0.05 mg/kg: G0.025 and G0.05, respectively). The effect of the two doses on IoC and PE were compared. The effect of dexmedetomidine dosage on the EEG was not significantly different between groups for any of the studied indexes (IoC (p=0.058); PE (p=0.392)). Only the IoC showed a significantly lower value in G0.05 than G0.025 at T15. The analysis revealed a significant effect of time on the IoC (p=0.001) and PE (p=0.0195). IoC and PE did not decrease to values correspondent to the anesthetized state, as was expected regarding previous works. This may be explained by the known excitatory effects of ketamine on the EEG. However, the tendency of the indexes to decrease after induction and to be lower in the animals that received the higher dexmedetomidine dosage suggests the capacity of these parameters to detect depressant effects of alpha-2-agonists.
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Paper Nr: 7
Title:

Wireless Transmission of Torso Acceleration and Fault Detection to Evaluate Lameness in Horses
Authors:

Marco Lopes, Kevin Keegan, P. Frank Pai, Yoshiharu Yonezawa and Hiromitchi Maki
Abstract: Lameness is the most common clinical problem affecting horses. In cases of mild lameness, experienced veterinarians do not consistently detect lameness using subjective evaluation. The classic methods of kinematics and kinetics for objective detection of lameness are effective but not practical for the clinical setting. An inertial sensor system has been developed for objective lameness detection in horses. The sensors sample vertical acceleration of the head and pelvis and angular velocity of the right forelimb at 200 Hz. Data is transmitted in real time to a hand-held tablet computer. Using an adaptation of vibration analysis for fault detection vertical torso movement is processed and analyzed. Evaluation of lameness with the inertial sensor system is precise, accurate, and more sensitive than traditional subjective evaluation.
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Paper Nr: 10
Title:

Farm Animals Monitoring Tool based on Image Processing Technique
Authors:

Carlos Eduardo Bites Romanini, Stefano Viazzi, Federica Borgonovo, Annamaria Costa, Marcella Guarino, Toon Leroy and Daniel Berckmans
Abstract: This paper describes camera based systems and image processing technique as a monitoring tool for farm animals. Image based systems were used to automatic measure the activity and occupation indexes of piglets and broilers chickens. Experimental results were presented in a form of two case studies: 1) Understanding the effect of environmental enrichment in piglet’s activities - the study was conducted in two selected pens of a fattening room. The activity of 14 Dalland piglets was recorded continuously for a total of 5 days. On the second day environmental enrichments were introduced in the form of two wooden logs and a chain. 2) Understanding the effect of light intensity on broiler chicken’s activities - in a total of 62 Ross 308 broiler chickens (equal number of female and male) kept on a 16 h photoperiod treatments. The light intensity schedule varied according to the age of the chickens. For chickens with 15 days old the light-dark schedule alternate every 4 hours between 5 lx and 100 lx. For chickens with around 21 and 40 days old the light conditions alternated every 2 hours. In both study cases the activity index recorded the total amount of movement at a group level. Piglets increased their movements and playing behaviour when environmental enrichments (wood logs and chain) were introduced to the pens. Broiler chickens showed higher activity indexes during periods of 100 lx than 5 lx when light intensity alternated.
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Paper Nr: 11
Title:

Development of a Self-regenerative Unit for Carbon Dioxide Removal from Anaesthetic Circuits: Preliminary Results using Hydroxide Solutions - Preliminary Results using Hydroxide Solutions
Authors:

Inês Pantaleão, Joana Cabral, Joaquim Gabriel, José Sousa and Adélio Mendes
Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO2) removal from anaesthetic circuits is currently performed by soda-lime canisters. However, this procedure has many drawbacks, being the most important its relation with post operative cognitive decline and death in the first year after surgery. In this paper an alternative technology is proposed based on a self-regenerative unit using hollow fiber membrane contactors and amino acid salts for gas-liquid absorption of CO2. This technology, is expected to overcome all the drawbacks associated with soda-lime units. A preliminary experiment was evaluated under real conditions for CO2 removal, using hydroxide solutions. The system performed similarly to soda-lime canisters, being able to remove CO2 from 5 % to 0.5 % (in nitrogen) during an hour, from a 10 L/min gas stream.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

Cluster Analysis and Artificial Neural Network on the Superovulatory Response Prediction in Mice
Authors:

Gabriela Berni Brianezi, Fernando Frei, José Celso Rocha and Marcelo Fábio Gouveia Nogueira
Abstract: Complex biological systems require sophisticated approach for analysis, once there are variables with distinct measure levels to be analyzed at the same time in them. The mouse assisted reproduction, e.g. superovulation and viable embryos production, demand a multidisciplinary control of the environment, endocrinologic and physiologic status of the animals, of the stressing factors and the conditions which are favorable to their copulation and subsequently oocyte fertilization. In the past, analyses with a simplified approach of these variables were not well succeeded to predict the situations that viable embryos were obtained in mice. Thereby, we suggest a more complex approach with association of the Cluster Analysis and the Artificial Neural Network to predict embryo production in superovulated mice. A robust prediction could avoid the useless death of animals and would allow an ethic management of them in experiments requiring mouse embryo.
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Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Non-invasive Core Temperature Transponders as a Problem Alert in Sheep Farming Management
Authors:

Caroline Chylinski, Jacques Cortet, Didier Crochet, Pierre Sarradin and Jacques Cabaret
Abstract: Current farming management is evolving towards systems that require minimal human:animal interaction. However, there is still a need to monitor their condition. The use of transponders to track body temperature fluctuations within the animals may offer a solution. Using a sheep-parasitic nematode (Haemonchus) model we have demonstrated that body temperature is linked to the infection, to pain and stress. We suggest that temperature transponders are a good candidate for use in alert system in extensive farming.
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