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IPS Conference 2006
Abstracts
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Abstract # 72:
Scheduled for Tuesday,
June 27, 2006
11:20 AM-11:40 AM:
Session 12 (Kama A)
Symposium
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POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT TRAINING MAY DIMINISH INTERINDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AMONG CAPTIVE CHIMPANZEES (PAN TROGLODYTES) |
S. J. Schapiro, S. P. Lambeth, J. E. Perlman and E. Thiele
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, Dept. of Veterinary Sciences, 650 Cool Water Dr., Bastrop, TX, 78602, USA |
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| Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are extremely important models for biomedical research, given their high degree of similarity to humans. While this similarity is advantageous when generalizing the results of experiments conducted with chimpanzee subjects to humans, it is somewhat less advantageous in relation to the question of the ethics of using chimpanzees in research. The development and application of techniques that reduce the number of animals required for experiments, without decreasing the power of the investigations, are goals that address the ethical question and are worthy of considerable effort. Training chimpanzees, using positive reinforcement techniques, to provide voluntary, unanesthetized blood samples should represent such an application. Seven adult chimpanzees have been trained to present for conscious blood samples. Comparisons of physiological parameters including hematological, chemistry, and immunological variables indicate that the handling technique that is used to collect the blood sample (voluntary vs. anesthetized), significantly affects a number of these physiological parameters. In many cases, values from trained samples are indicative of diminished stress, and more importantly for this presentation, are considerably less variable than values from anesthetized samples. This suggests that positive reinforcement training techniques can be used to diminish interindividual variability in physiological samples, further suggesting that with the proper application of training techniques, smaller sample sizes may be appropriate for experiments using chimpanzees without concomitant reductions in the statistical power of the research. |
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Modified: 18 December 2005
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