Burlingame, L. A., Na, J., Dunbar, M. et al. 2014. Behavioral ethogram as a health assessment tool in a feline vaccine study. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 610. (Abstract #P227).

For infectious disease studies, assessment of feline health is traditionally limited to metrics such as body temperature (BT), change in body weight (BW), and clinical signs (CS). Recently, behavioral ethograms designed for assessment of rabbits and rodents were demonstrated to serve as sensitive indicators of pain or illness. Similarly, we hypothesized that feline behaviors, such as play and resting behaviors, evaluated before and after viral challenge may complement traditional measures (T, BW, CS) as means to identify animals with disease. We evaluated 21 cats, divided between 3 vaccine treatment groups (control, intranasal (IN), and intramuscular (IM)) at baseline (day before viral challenge) through 11 d postviral challenge (PVC). In addition to measuring daily BW and T, remote video data was collected and analyzed over 60-s increments according to a novel ethogram. The behaviors assessed via ethogram demonstrated significant changes in the PVC period including changes in play, rest, and consumption (eating/drinking). Results across the different treatment groups indicate that all cats developed elevated BT 4 d PVC. Concurrently, a significant decrease in the control and IN groups BW was first achieved on day 4 PVC. In contrast, the IM groups BW decline was not significant until day 9 PVC. Play and consumptive behaviors decreased significantly at 2 d PVC in the control and IN groups, respectively, compared with the IM group. Rest behavior was significantly elevated in IN and control groups from d 6 and 7, respectively, until d 9 PVC. The IM group had no significant difference in rest behavior throughout the study. In summary, our novel ethogram identified changes in play and consumptive behaviors 2 d before changes in BT and BW were evident. Additionally, increases in rest behavior were evident in both IN and control groups, but not the IM group. The ethogram findings provided significant clinical information and a more sensitive means for the detection of cats with viral disease than some of the standard metrics. Therefore, we propose that future feline infectious disease studies incorporate such an ethogram.