Telemetry

Telemetry for distance monitoring and minimal invasive investigation in primate research - JRA3

Objectives and expected impact
The objective of the project is the development of two bidirectional telemetry systems for laboratory primates. Expected impact is a considerable reduction of experimental stress to animals by providing European Primate Centres with standardized state-of-the art wireless recording systems for recording physiological data minimal invasively.

The project heads (i) for a head mounted device (high data rate system – System A) implanted via a MRI-compatible platform suited to record electric brain activity, and (ii) for a low data rate system – System B designed as a dynamic or infrastructure network carried by a number of individual animals, e.g. for ethological studies or colony management.

Commercially available wireless recording or remote monitoring devices for use in experimental animals do, in general, not offer individual configurability based upon open software universally used among scientists. JRA3 will provide easy and flexible adjustability to specific requirements for different experimental designs and primate species.

The development and refinement of wireless techniques generally used by European primate scientists are believed to facilitate (i) acquisition of data not readily available from non-restrained animals, and guarantee (2) exchangeability as well as comparability of such “primate” data.

The telemetric devices developed within the scope of JRA3 are also designed to support ethological, neuroethological, biomedical, and toxicological research in primates. The proposed approach provides important contributions to the 3 R-concept of Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement.