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Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis

The assessment of animals’ health and nutritional status using a Body Condition Score (BCS) has become a common and reliable tool in lab-animal science. It enables a simple, semi-objective, and non-invasive assessment (palpation of osteal prominences and subcutaneous fat tissue) in routine examinati...

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Autores principales: Tix, Leonie, Ernst, Lisa, Bungardt, Britta, Talbot, Steven R., Hilken, Gero, Tolba, René H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10132665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37099619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280000
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author Tix, Leonie
Ernst, Lisa
Bungardt, Britta
Talbot, Steven R.
Hilken, Gero
Tolba, René H.
author_facet Tix, Leonie
Ernst, Lisa
Bungardt, Britta
Talbot, Steven R.
Hilken, Gero
Tolba, René H.
author_sort Tix, Leonie
collection PubMed
description The assessment of animals’ health and nutritional status using a Body Condition Score (BCS) has become a common and reliable tool in lab-animal science. It enables a simple, semi-objective, and non-invasive assessment (palpation of osteal prominences and subcutaneous fat tissue) in routine examination of an animal. In mammals, the BCS classification contains 5 levels: A low score describes a poor nutritional condition (BCS 1–2). A BCS of 3 to 4 is considered optimum, whereas a high score (BCS = 5) is associated with obesity. While BCS are published for most common laboratory mammals, these assessment criteria are not directly applicable to clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) due to their intracoelomic fat body instead of subcutaneous fat tissue. Therefore, this assessment tool is still missing for Xenopus laevis. The present study aimed to establish a species-specific BCS for clawed frogs in terms of housing refinement in lab-animal facilities. Accordingly, 62 adult female Xenopus laevis were weighed and sized. Further, the body contour was defined, classified, and assigned to BCS groups. A BCS 5 was associated with a mean body weight of 193.3 g (± 27.6 g), whereas a BCS 4 ranged at 163.1 g (±16.0 g). Animals with a BCS = 3 had an average body weight of 114.7 g (±16.7 g). A BCS = 2 was determined in 3 animals (103 g, 110 g, and 111 g). One animal had a BCS = 1 (83 g), equivalent to a humane endpoint. In conclusion, individual examination using the presented visual BCS provides a quick and easy assessment of the nutritional status and overall health of adult female Xenopus laevis. Due to their ectothermic nature and the associated special metabolic situation, it can be assumed that a BCS ≥3 is to be preferred for female Xenopus laevis. In addition, BCS assessment may indicate underlying subclinical health problems that require further diagnostic investigation.
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spelling pubmed-101326652023-04-27 Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis Tix, Leonie Ernst, Lisa Bungardt, Britta Talbot, Steven R. Hilken, Gero Tolba, René H. PLoS One Research Article The assessment of animals’ health and nutritional status using a Body Condition Score (BCS) has become a common and reliable tool in lab-animal science. It enables a simple, semi-objective, and non-invasive assessment (palpation of osteal prominences and subcutaneous fat tissue) in routine examination of an animal. In mammals, the BCS classification contains 5 levels: A low score describes a poor nutritional condition (BCS 1–2). A BCS of 3 to 4 is considered optimum, whereas a high score (BCS = 5) is associated with obesity. While BCS are published for most common laboratory mammals, these assessment criteria are not directly applicable to clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) due to their intracoelomic fat body instead of subcutaneous fat tissue. Therefore, this assessment tool is still missing for Xenopus laevis. The present study aimed to establish a species-specific BCS for clawed frogs in terms of housing refinement in lab-animal facilities. Accordingly, 62 adult female Xenopus laevis were weighed and sized. Further, the body contour was defined, classified, and assigned to BCS groups. A BCS 5 was associated with a mean body weight of 193.3 g (± 27.6 g), whereas a BCS 4 ranged at 163.1 g (±16.0 g). Animals with a BCS = 3 had an average body weight of 114.7 g (±16.7 g). A BCS = 2 was determined in 3 animals (103 g, 110 g, and 111 g). One animal had a BCS = 1 (83 g), equivalent to a humane endpoint. In conclusion, individual examination using the presented visual BCS provides a quick and easy assessment of the nutritional status and overall health of adult female Xenopus laevis. Due to their ectothermic nature and the associated special metabolic situation, it can be assumed that a BCS ≥3 is to be preferred for female Xenopus laevis. In addition, BCS assessment may indicate underlying subclinical health problems that require further diagnostic investigation. Public Library of Science 2023-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10132665/ /pubmed/37099619 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280000 Text en © 2023 Tix et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Tix, Leonie
Ernst, Lisa
Bungardt, Britta
Talbot, Steven R.
Hilken, Gero
Tolba, René H.
Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title_full Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title_fullStr Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title_full_unstemmed Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title_short Establishment of the body condition score for adult female Xenopus laevis
title_sort establishment of the body condition score for adult female xenopus laevis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10132665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37099619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280000
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