The impact of acute loud noise on the behavior of laboratory birds
Abstract
Husbandry procedures and facility settings, such as low-frequency fire alarms, can produce noises in a laboratory environment that cause stress to animals used in research. However, most of the data demonstrating harmful effects that have, consequently, led to adaptations to management, have largely come from laboratory rodents with little known of the impacts on avian behavior and physiology. Here we examined whether exposure to a routine laboratory noise, a low-frequency fire alarm test, induced behavioral changes in laboratory zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Twenty-four breeding pairs of zebra finches were randomly selected and exposed to the low-frequency fire alarm (sounding for 10–20 s) or no noise (control) on separate test days. All birds were filmed before and after the alarm sounded and on a control day (without the alarm). The zebra finches decreased their general activity and increased stationary and social behaviors after exposure to the alarm. Brief exposure to a low-frequency alarm disrupted the birds' behavior for at least 15 min. The induction of this behavioral stress response suggests that low-frequency sound alarms in laboratory facilities have the potential to compromise the welfare of laboratory birds.
Citation
Corbani , T L , Martin , J E & Healy , S D 2021 , ' The impact of acute loud noise on the behavior of laboratory birds ' , Frontiers in Veterinary Science , vol. 7 , 607632 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.607632
Publication
Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2297-1769Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 Corbani, Martin and Healy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
Funding: The Roslin Institute is funded by a BBSRC Institute Strategic Program Grant BB/P013759/1.Collections
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