TY - JOUR
T1 - Recommendations for abnormal behaviour ethograms in monkey research
AU - Polanco, Andrea
AU - McCowan, Brenda
AU - Niel, Lee
AU - Pearl, David L.
AU - Mason, Georgia
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant and Universities Federation for Animal Welfare ?3 Rs? Award.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the monkeys for providing the data, and both NSERC and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare for funding.
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant and Universities Federation for Animal Welfare ‘3 Rs’ Award.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Laboratory monkey ethograms currently include subcategories of abnormal behaviours that are based on superficial morphological similarity. Yet, such ethograms may be misclassifying behaviour, with potential welfare implications as different abnormal behaviours are likely to have distinct risk factors and treatments. We therefore investigated the convergent validity of four hy-pothesized subcategories of abnormal behaviours (‘motor’, e.g., pacing; ‘self‐stimulation’, e.g., self-sucking; ‘postural’, e.g., hanging; and ‘self‐abuse’, e.g., self‐biting). This hypothesis predicts positive relationships between the behaviours within each subcategory. Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) data on 19 abnormal behaviours were obtained from indoor‐housed animals (n = 1183). Logistic regression models, controlling for sex, age, and the number of observations, revealed that only 1/6 ‘motor’ behaviours positively predicted pacing, while 2/3 ‘self‐abuse’ behaviours positively predicted self‐biting (one‐tailed p‐value < 0.05). Furthermore, ‘self‐stimulation’ behaviours did not pre-dict self‐sucking, and none of the ‘postural’ behaviours predicted hanging. Thus, none of the sub-categories fully met convergent validity. Subsequently, we created four new valid subcategories formed of comorbid behaviours. The first consisted of self‐biting, self‐hitting, self‐injurious behav-iour, floating limb, leg‐lifting, and self‐clasping. The second comprised twirling, bouncing, rocking, swinging, and hanging. The third comprised pacing and head‐twisting, while the final subcategory consisted of flipping and eye‐poking. Self‐sucking, hair‐plucking, threat‐biting, and withdrawn remained as individual behaviours. We encourage laboratories to replicate the validation of these subcategories first, and for scientists working with other species to validate their ethograms before using them in welfare assessments.
AB - Laboratory monkey ethograms currently include subcategories of abnormal behaviours that are based on superficial morphological similarity. Yet, such ethograms may be misclassifying behaviour, with potential welfare implications as different abnormal behaviours are likely to have distinct risk factors and treatments. We therefore investigated the convergent validity of four hy-pothesized subcategories of abnormal behaviours (‘motor’, e.g., pacing; ‘self‐stimulation’, e.g., self-sucking; ‘postural’, e.g., hanging; and ‘self‐abuse’, e.g., self‐biting). This hypothesis predicts positive relationships between the behaviours within each subcategory. Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) data on 19 abnormal behaviours were obtained from indoor‐housed animals (n = 1183). Logistic regression models, controlling for sex, age, and the number of observations, revealed that only 1/6 ‘motor’ behaviours positively predicted pacing, while 2/3 ‘self‐abuse’ behaviours positively predicted self‐biting (one‐tailed p‐value < 0.05). Furthermore, ‘self‐stimulation’ behaviours did not pre-dict self‐sucking, and none of the ‘postural’ behaviours predicted hanging. Thus, none of the sub-categories fully met convergent validity. Subsequently, we created four new valid subcategories formed of comorbid behaviours. The first consisted of self‐biting, self‐hitting, self‐injurious behav-iour, floating limb, leg‐lifting, and self‐clasping. The second comprised twirling, bouncing, rocking, swinging, and hanging. The third comprised pacing and head‐twisting, while the final subcategory consisted of flipping and eye‐poking. Self‐sucking, hair‐plucking, threat‐biting, and withdrawn remained as individual behaviours. We encourage laboratories to replicate the validation of these subcategories first, and for scientists working with other species to validate their ethograms before using them in welfare assessments.
KW - Abnormal behaviour
KW - Convergent validity
KW - Ethogram
KW - Macaca mulatta
KW - Management practices
KW - Nonhuman primates
KW - Rhesus macaque
KW - Welfare
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105924854&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85105924854&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ani11051461
DO - 10.3390/ani11051461
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105924854
VL - 11
JO - Animals
JF - Animals
SN - 2076-2615
IS - 5
M1 - 1461
ER -