Cargando…

Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Guinea pigs (GPs) (Cavia porcellus) are not only kept as pets but also widely used in biological and biomedical research. At present, GPs are also used as a species for animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Consequently, assessing their health status is vital to determining their qualit...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fitria, Laksmindra, Wijayanti, Nastiti, Arisuryanti, Tuty, Salasia, Siti Isrina Oktavia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Veterinary World 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9375207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35993076
http://dx.doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.1575-1582
_version_ 1784767915284758528
author Fitria, Laksmindra
Wijayanti, Nastiti
Arisuryanti, Tuty
Salasia, Siti Isrina Oktavia
author_facet Fitria, Laksmindra
Wijayanti, Nastiti
Arisuryanti, Tuty
Salasia, Siti Isrina Oktavia
author_sort Fitria, Laksmindra
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIM: Guinea pigs (GPs) (Cavia porcellus) are not only kept as pets but also widely used in biological and biomedical research. At present, GPs are also used as a species for animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Consequently, assessing their health status is vital to determining their quality of life, usability for research, and prevention of spread of potential zoonotic diseases to patients using them for AAT. GPs are mainly sourced from animal markets supplied by traditional farms, where environmental factors and sanitation are not properly controlled. This study aimed to compare health status between GPs raised in uncontrolled (conventional farm) and controlled (animal facility) environments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sample animals were obtained from a local animal market and transported to an animal facility. After 1 week of acclimatization, the health status of the animals, including general health condition, body weight, body temperature, complete blood count, liver function (alanine aminotransferase and bilirubin), renal function (blood urea nitrogen and creatinine), and presence of ectoparasites and endoparasites, was assessed. Then, the animals were maintained in the animal facility following the standard procedure for laboratory animals. After 2 months, the animals’ health status was re-examined, assessing the same parameters. RESULTS: Based on the evaluated parameters, GPs raised in an uncontrolled environment were found to have poorer health status than those raised in a controlled environment. There were significant differences in almost all parameters between GPs raised in controlled and uncontrolled environments. We found that the populations of two ectoparasites, Gyropus ovalis and Gliricola porcelli, and one endoparasite, Eimeria caviae, decreased significantly following the movement of the animals from an uncontrolled to a controlled environment. CONCLUSION: GPs raised in an uncontrolled environment have poor health status. However, a controlled environment with better care management can improve the health status of GPs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9375207
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Veterinary World
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93752072022-08-19 Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments Fitria, Laksmindra Wijayanti, Nastiti Arisuryanti, Tuty Salasia, Siti Isrina Oktavia Vet World Research Article BACKGROUND AND AIM: Guinea pigs (GPs) (Cavia porcellus) are not only kept as pets but also widely used in biological and biomedical research. At present, GPs are also used as a species for animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Consequently, assessing their health status is vital to determining their quality of life, usability for research, and prevention of spread of potential zoonotic diseases to patients using them for AAT. GPs are mainly sourced from animal markets supplied by traditional farms, where environmental factors and sanitation are not properly controlled. This study aimed to compare health status between GPs raised in uncontrolled (conventional farm) and controlled (animal facility) environments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sample animals were obtained from a local animal market and transported to an animal facility. After 1 week of acclimatization, the health status of the animals, including general health condition, body weight, body temperature, complete blood count, liver function (alanine aminotransferase and bilirubin), renal function (blood urea nitrogen and creatinine), and presence of ectoparasites and endoparasites, was assessed. Then, the animals were maintained in the animal facility following the standard procedure for laboratory animals. After 2 months, the animals’ health status was re-examined, assessing the same parameters. RESULTS: Based on the evaluated parameters, GPs raised in an uncontrolled environment were found to have poorer health status than those raised in a controlled environment. There were significant differences in almost all parameters between GPs raised in controlled and uncontrolled environments. We found that the populations of two ectoparasites, Gyropus ovalis and Gliricola porcelli, and one endoparasite, Eimeria caviae, decreased significantly following the movement of the animals from an uncontrolled to a controlled environment. CONCLUSION: GPs raised in an uncontrolled environment have poor health status. However, a controlled environment with better care management can improve the health status of GPs. Veterinary World 2022-06 2022-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9375207/ /pubmed/35993076 http://dx.doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.1575-1582 Text en Copyright: © Fitria, et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Fitria, Laksmindra
Wijayanti, Nastiti
Arisuryanti, Tuty
Salasia, Siti Isrina Oktavia
Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title_full Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title_fullStr Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title_full_unstemmed Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title_short Health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
title_sort health comparison between guinea pigs raised in uncontrolled and controlled environments
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9375207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35993076
http://dx.doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.1575-1582
work_keys_str_mv AT fitrialaksmindra healthcomparisonbetweenguineapigsraisedinuncontrolledandcontrolledenvironments
AT wijayantinastiti healthcomparisonbetweenguineapigsraisedinuncontrolledandcontrolledenvironments
AT arisuryantituty healthcomparisonbetweenguineapigsraisedinuncontrolledandcontrolledenvironments
AT salasiasitiisrinaoktavia healthcomparisonbetweenguineapigsraisedinuncontrolledandcontrolledenvironments