Tracking 'tails': Refining motor activity monitoring in rats and mice (2025)

Reading, R.

Abstract

Motor activity monitoring is used in specialist regulatory toxicology studies to investigate test item related neurobehavioral effects. Introduction of a new video tracking software system which detects the centre point, tail base and nose tip of rodents to individually track the movement of each animal in a non-invasive way. The system was successfully validated and demonstrated it could be used within the constraints regulatory toxicology studies in both rats and mice. The data generated demonstrated that the system accurately identified the targeted parameters on the animal which aligned with the needs of the study.