Award details

(A) Rapid imaging capture and measurement of rodent urinary scent marks for behavioural analysis

Reference	JE514307
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Jane Hurst
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Paula Stockley
Institution	University of Liverpool
Department	Veterinary Clinical Science
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	15,000
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	30/04/2001
End date	30/10/2001
Duration	6 months

Abstract

This application is for a single dedicated piece of equipment for a rather novel application in the analysis of chemical communication in rodents. The need for this equipment has arisen from the substantial expansion in the applicant's group, and the commensurate need to move from manual to automated analyses of scent marking patterns. The ability to achieve this has arisen from the development of dedicated, UV-epi- illuminated systems that are coupled to sensitive, cooled CCD cameras. We have demonstrated that such systems, designed for capture of chemiluminescent or fluorescent electrophoretic gels, are also superb at capturing the scent marks that are deposited on the surfaces used to sample urine marking behaviour. At present, we analyse these scent mark patterns manually, under a strong UV light source, which is error- prone, subjective and time consuming. A semi-automated solution would not only improve throughput and reliability of data but reduce UV exposure to lab personnel. Experience with this system suggests that we will gain a twenty fold increase in throughput of mark pattern analysis.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Joint Equipment Initiative 2000 (JE5) [2000]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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