Feed intake of the sow and playful creep feeding of piglets influence piglet behaviour and performance before and after weaning.

Creep feed intake is variable and may be partly homeostatically and exploratory driven. We studied effects of maternal feed restriction and a 'play-feeder' on piglet behaviour and performance. 37 Litters received creep feed in a conventional (CON) or play-feeder (PL) and their sows were full-fed (FF) or restrictedly-fed (RES). Eaters were determined via rectal swabs. At weaning (d24) four piglets from the same treatment were grouped (n = 36 pens). RES hindered piglet growth by 41 g/d and enhanced time eating, creep feed intake and percentage of eaters at weaning versus FF. RES-PL had the largest proportion of moderate and good eaters. PL stimulated feeder exploration and attracted more piglets to the feeder than CON. Post-weaning, RES increased exploratory behaviours, feed intake between d0-5, and growth between d0-2, and reduced body lesions between d0-2 (within CON), drinking and ear biting. PL increased ingestive behaviours, feed intake and growth between d0-15, and BW at d15 post-weaning by 5%. PL also lowered the prevalence of watery diarrhoea, number of body lesions and piglets with ear (within FF) and tail (within RES) damage at d15 post-weaning. Treatments did not affect FCR. To conclude, RES and particularly PL (broader and for longer) result in less weaning-associated-problems.

A Semi-Automatic Dispenser for Solid and Liquid Food in Aquatic Facilities.

We present a novel, low-footprint and low-cost semi-automatic system for delivering solid and liquid food to zebrafish, and more generally to aquatic animals raised in racks of tanks. It is composed of a portable main module equipped with a contactless reader that adjusts the quantity to deliver for each tank, and either a solid food module or a liquid food module. Solid food comprises virtually any kind of dry powder or grains below 2 mm in diameter, and, for liquid-mediated food, brine shrimps (Artemia salina) and rotifers (Rotifera) have been successfully tested. Real-world testing, feedback, and validation have been performed in a zebrafish facility for several months. In comparison with manual feeding this system mitigates the appearance of musculoskeletal disorders among regularly-feeding staff, and let operators observe the animals' behavior instead of being focused on quantities to deliver. We also tested the accuracy of both humans and our dispenser and found that the semi-automatic system is much more reliable, with respectively 7-fold and 84-fold drops in standard deviation for solid and liquid food.

A motorized pellet dispenser to deliver high intensity training of the single pellet reaching and grasping task in rats.

The single pellet reaching and grasping (SPG) task is widely used to study forelimb motor performance in rodents and to provide rehabilitation after neurological disorders. Nonetheless, the time necessary to train animals precludes its use in settings where high-intensity training is required. In the current study, we developed a novel high-intensity training protocol for the SPG task based on a motorized pellet dispenser and a dual-window enclosure. We tested the protocol in naive adult rats and found 1) an increase in the intensity of training without increasing the task time and without affecting the overall performance of the animals, 2) a reduction in the variability within and between experiments in comparison to manual SPG training, and 3) a reduction in the time required to conduct experiments. In summary, we developed and tested a novel protocol for SPG training that provides higher-intensity training while reducing the variability of results observed with other protocols.

A novel open-source drug-delivery system that allows for first-of-kind simulation of nonadherence to pharmacological interventions in animal disease models.

BACKGROUND: Nonadherence to a physician-prescribed therapeutic intervention is a costly, dangerous, and sometimes fatal concern in healthcare. To date, the study of nonadherence has been constrained to clinical studies. The novel approach described herein allows for the preclinical study of nonadherence in etiologically relevant disease animal model systems. NEW METHOD: The method herein describes a novel computer-automated pellet delivery system which allows for the study of nonadherence in animals. This system described herein allows for tight experimenter control of treatment using a drug-in-food protocol. Food-restricted animals receive either medicated or unmedicated pellets, designed to mimic either "taking" or "missing" a drug. RESULTS: The system described permits the distribution of medicated or unmedicated food pellets on an experimenter-defined feeding schedule. The flexibility of this system permits the delivery of drug according to the known pharmacokinetics of investigational drugs. COMPARISON WITH OTHER METHODS: Current clinical adherence research relies on medication-event monitoring system (MEMS) tracking caps, which allows clinicians to directly monitor patient adherence. However, correlating the effects of nonadherence to efficacy still relies on the accuracy of patient journals. CONCLUSION: This system allows for the design of studies to address the impact of nonadherence in an etiologically relevant animal model. Given methodological and ethical concerns of designing clinical studies of nonadherence, animal studies are critical to better understand medication adherence. While the system described was designed to measure the impact of nonadherence on seizure control, it is clear that the utility of this system extends beyond epilepsy to include other disease states.

The use of point-of-sale machines in school cafeterias as a method of parental influence over child lunch food choices.

BACKGROUND: Computerized point-of-sale (POS) machine software that allows parents to place restrictions on their child's school meal accounts is available. Parents could restrict specific foods (eg, chips), identify specific days the child can purchase extra foods, or set monetary limits. This descriptive study examines the use of parental restrictions on student cafeteria POS accounts in a convenience sample of 2 school districts. METHODS: POS alerts, with student gender, grade, ethnicity, and students' free or reduced-price meal eligibility, were obtained from 2 school food service departments for the 2007-2008 school year. The alerts were coded into 5 categories: financial, medical, restrictions, snacks OK, and extras OK. The distribution of alerts by district, students, and demographics was then tabulated. RESULTS: District A (4839 students) had more students with alerts (n = 789, 16%) than District B (8510 students; n = 217, 2.6%), and 94 District A students had a second alert. District A parents had to provide written permission for their child to purchase snacks (n = 654, 13.5%) and extra meal items (n = 113, 2.3%). Most alerts were for full-pay students in both districts (74% and 66%) and varied by demographics of the students. CONCLUSIONS: Few parents actually used this system to limit student purchases of foods outside the school meal. Future studies should investigate the influence of these restrictions on student food choices.

An automated food delivery system for behavioral and neurophysiological studies of learning and memory in freely moving monkeys.

We describe a custom-built feeder based on stepping motor technology controlled by a laboratory computer. The feeder dispenses a wide range of foods: any fruit, vegetable, or nut. The feeder allows the investigator to reward monkeys with different foods within a single experimental day. The monkey's motivation to perform tasks is high and does not rely upon food regulation. The avoidance of regulation, as well as the palatability and variety of the rewards dispensed by our device, distinguishes it from commercially available products. We also describe the use of the feeder in the context of novel behavioral and neurophysiological studies in freely moving monkeys.

A new-generation apparatus for studying memory-related performance in mice.

1. We developed a new kind of food search test that can measure murine nocturnal memory without handling hard work for setting up. 2. This apparatus has four food stations, but only one station had accessible food at any time. The one station with accessible food was changed at 4-h intervals. 3. We compared the performance of transient forebrain global Ischemic mice, which are a hippocampal lesion model, with the performance of control C57BL/6J mice. 4. The correct visit ratio, i.e., the ratio of the number of visits to the correct food station to the number of visits to all stations, gradually increased in the control mice, but did not change in the Ischemic mice. 5. This new system was demonstrated to be an additional and useful tool for studying memory-related performance in mice.

A novel food-delivery device for neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies in monkeys.

Neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies in monkeys sometimes require an automated food-pellet dispenser. Commercially available dispensers typically sequester the pellet until delivery and, once delivered, the pellet's availability cannot be controlled. The custom-designed dispenser described here overcomes those two limitations. The device is composed of two separate units: a feeder and an electronic controller. The feeder manipulates food pellets with actuators driven by air pressure and delivers them into a serving bowl. The controller's settings determine whether the monkey can retrieve a pellet from the bowl. If the experiment requires that the pellet be visible and within reach, but unavailable for retrieval, the controller enables a trap-door mechanism at the bottom of the bowl. Any motion near the serving bowl, such as that caused by the approach of a monkey's hand, will then trigger the opening of the trap door, which causes the pellet to fall into an enclosed pellet collector. This rapid pellet-removal mechanism can also be triggered by other computer-controlled contingencies. Two of these dispensers have been in operation in an applied laboratory setting for over 2 years.