Castration or sterilisation: a basic research oriented study to the effects of animal welfare and mate choice in guinea pigs

阉割或绝育：一项针对豚鼠动物福利和配偶选择影响的基础研究

• 批准号: 368707093
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Sylvia Kaiser
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung für Verhaltensbiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/368707093?language=en
• 关键词: Castration; sterilisation; basic; research; oriented

Castration or sterilisation: a basic research oriented study to the effects of ani-mal welfare and mate choice in guinea pigsAn uncontrolled reproduction of animals kept in captivity should be avoided. To meet this goal generally animals are castrated, i.e. the gonads are completely removed. Because of this procedure, sometimes also undesirable aggressive as well as courtship and sexual behaviour displayed by the animals can be reduced. These behavioural changes are in human interest. From the animal´s point of view, the question arises, however, whether sterilisation (a much less intense procedure, since gonads not removed, but only the transport of egg and sperm cells are prevented) could be better than a castration: in contrast to a sterilisation, a castration reduced the display of natural behavioural patterns. The project is part of basic research regarding animal welfare. The overall aim is to analyse the different effects of the two operations, castration and sterilisation on animal welfare. This is investigated in guinea pigs, a very well suitable animal model because of comprehensive studies in social behaviour, social organisation and animal welfare. We will work with the following basic experimental strategy: Groups consisting of one male and two intact females will be established and four different groups of males will be compared: castrated, sterilized, sham-operated and intact males. Furthermore, we will investigate the females, living together with the different treated males. As indicator for animal welfare of males and females, we will investigate socio-positive, agonistic and play behaviour as well as plasma cortisol concentrations. Additionally we will investigate whether females prefer sterilized or castrated males. In this project data are generated, which allow evidence based decisions regarding the question which operation (castration or sterilisation) should be conducted. Thus, the results of this project will contribute crucially to the question how to handle animals in captivity.

阉割或绝育：一项针对豚鼠动物福利和配偶选择影响的基础研究。为了实现这一目标，应避免圈养动物的不受控制的繁殖，即彻底切除性腺。这个过程有时也可以减少动物表现出的不良攻击性以及求偶行为和性行为，从动物的角度来看，这些行为变化是符合人类利益的。然而，问题出现了，绝育（一种强度低得多的程序，因为性腺没有被切除，只是阻止了卵子和精子细胞的运输）是否比阉割更好：与绝育相比，阉割减少了展示该项目是动物福利基础研究的一部分，总体目标是分析阉割和绝育这两种手术对动物福利的不同影响。由于对社会行为、社会组织和动物福利的综合研究，我们将采用以下基本实验策略，建立非常合适的动物模型：将建立由一只雄性和两只完整雌性组成的组，并对四个不同的雄性组进行比较。 ：阉割、绝育、假手术和完整的雄性此外，我们将调查与不同雄性生活在一起的雌性，作为雄性和雌性动物福利的指标，我们将调查社会积极性、竞争性和游戏对待行为。以及血浆皮质醇浓度。此外，我们将调查女性是否更喜欢绝育或阉割的男性，在这个项目中生成数据，这使得关于应该进行哪种手术（阉割或绝育）的问题做出基于证据的决定。询问如何处理圈养的动物。