Assessment of Pain and Inflammation in Domestic Animals Using Infrared Thermography: A Narrative Review (original) (raw)
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Application of infrared thermography for animal health study
emergent Life Sciences Research
Infrared thermography (IRT) is an advanced, safe, non-invasive, and contactless technology used to determine the surface temperature of an object. Thermal cameras absorb the infrared radiation generated by the surface, then transform it into electrical signals, and provide a thermal image of the body's surface temperature distribution. In addition to human medicine, IRT has mostly been used in veterinary medicine for diagnostic purposes and to detect distress in an animal. However, IRT can be a very effective technique for livestock and poultry breeding research viz. thermoregulation, reproduction, animal welfare, etc. Before preclinical testing, it is crucial to intervene to reduce the stress levels in experimental animals for the betterment of the experimental outcome. Where the infrared thermography could help us to monitor and assess the health status or the stress level in addition to behavioral and physiological parameters before the pre-clinical testing might be beneficia...
Animals
Body-temperature elevations are multifactorial in origin and classified as hyperthermia as a rise in temperature due to alterations in the thermoregulation mechanism; the body loses the ability to control or regulate body temperature. In contrast, fever is a controlled state, since the body adjusts its stable temperature range to increase body temperature without losing the thermoregulation capacity. Fever refers to an acute phase response that confers a survival benefit on the body, raising core body temperature during infection or systemic inflammation processes to reduce the survival and proliferation of infectious pathogens by altering temperature, restriction of essential nutrients, and the activation of an immune reaction. However, once the infection resolves, the febrile response must be tightly regulated to avoid excessive tissue damage. During fever, neurological, endocrine, immunological, and metabolic changes occur that cause an increase in the stable temperature range, w...
Annals of Animal Science, 2013
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in animal welfare. Consumers of animal products are paying more attention to maintaining good husbandry conditions on the farms, but also to some of the procedures entailing pain and suffering. The most invasive procedures are castration and dehorning (disbudding), which are often performed without anaesthesia. Pain associated with tissue damage causes behavioural and physiological changes. Observation of behaviour combined with measurements of autonomic nervous system activation, and hormones of the hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal axis, is the main method for assessing the emotional state of an animal. Immobilization and blood collection may themselves be a source of stress for these animals. There is a strong prerequisite for the development of non-invasive methods of assessing the level of animal welfare. One of them is infrared thermography. The study of eye temperature changes in cattle, measured with an infrared thermography c...
Method for auxiliary use of thermography in diagnosing inflammation in the coxofemoral joint in dogs
Semina: Ciências Agrárias, 2018
Joint diseases are relatively common in domestic animals, such as dogs. The involved inflammation produces thermal emission, which can be imaged using specific sensors that allow capturing of infrared images. Given that there have been few reports on the use of thermography in the diagnosis of inflammation associated with diseases of the hip joint in dogs, we here propose a method for identification of inflammatory foci in dogs by using infrared thermometry. The present study aimed to find non-invasive and low-cost resources that couldfacilitate a clinical diagnosis in cases withinflammation in the coxofemoral joint of dogs.To this end, we developed a system in whichthe Flir Systems TG165 thermograph is coupled to a black PVC cannula with a 30-cm focus-to-animal distance.External effects of the environment on the temperature of the animalswere compared with the body temperature as measured by a conventional thermometer.Thirty-one dogs with and without inflammation in the coxofemoral...
Ciência Rural, 2015
The infrared thermography is a diagnostic imaging tool, which measures the surface temperature of an object through its heat emission. It is a non-invasive method, painless, with no involvement of radiation. Horses have elevated incidence of back injuries which causes decrease in their performance. A rapid and accurate diagnostic is essential to start the treatment. The aim of this paper was to establish the ideal time to the animal stay e inside a controlled room to balance their temperature and in the second time verify the thermographic temperature of specific back regions. It was studied fifteen healthy horses, being performed thermography of thoracic, lumbar and pelvic regions in four different times. There was a significant difference between the thermography performed outside and inside of the controlled temperature room. It was concluded that the ideal time to the horse stay into the controlled temperature room was thirty minutes and the mean thermographic temperatures of ba...
World Rabbit Science, 2010
Among the main physiological stress indicators, the temperature evaluation is very important and innovative because it may be monitored without directly interacting with the animal. The use of a thermographic system, which is based on the detection of infrared radiation emitted by a subject, is a suitable method in order to measure temperature without any contact. In this research, a thermographic system was employed in order to single out the rabbit skin's zones most suitable for the temperature monitoring during stress challenges. Six hybrid rabbits were observed during induced stress; the areas selected as reference were: the ocular area (globe and periocular area), the internal auricle pavilion, and a shaved area of the head. The results of this pilot study show that the thermographic technique is a suitable method for the evaluation of temperature on rabbit. The best areas singled out were the eye bulb, the periocular area and the ear skin. The results concerning the effect of stress on cutaneous temperature showed that during stress condition a decrease in temperature occurs with respect to the basal condition (ΔT~1°C) and this trend is more evident for the auricle pavillion. In fact, this reaction is more evidenced in the ear skin, where a vasoconstriction process occurs. Moreover, corticosterone levels slightly increase (P=0.08) following the stressor's challenge due to tonic immobility test. In this research, both temperature and the change in corticosterone level show that the stress reaction induced by tonic immobility test is stronger than the one due to the other stressors applied to rabbits.
Factors Affecting the Measurement of Skin Temperature of Horses Using Digital Infrared Thermography
Acta Scientific Veterinary Sciences, 2020
Digital infrared thermography has the potential for use as a diagnostic tool to assess the health and welfare of horses in many different ways such as lameness, joint inflammation and pain evaluation. However, many factors affect the surface temperature of horses that are poorly quantified when we use this technology. Unless we quantify these variations and account for these variations while assessments are performed, the reliability of this technology will remain low. In this study, surface temperatures of four different Regions of Interest (head, trunk, front limb and gluteus) of 8 horses were studied in indoor (range 20ºC to 24ºC) and outdoor conditions (range 19ºC to 22ºC). Both the left and right sides of the trunk and gluteal region surface temperatures of horses were measured to determine thermal symmetry. The surface temperature of horses varied significantly depending on the Region of Interest when animals were in outdoor conditions, whereas it remained similar under indoor conditions. Stability of skin temperatures was observed between the left and right side of regions (thermal symmetry) even under outdoor conditions. Moreover, digital infrared thermography performed in a controlled environment provides more reliable estimates of surface temperature. If animals are exposed to the outdoor environment before thermography, adequate equilibration time should be provided for the surface temperature to revert to normal surface temperatures.
Use of thermographic imaging in clinical diagnosis of small animal: preliminary notes
Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanità, 2014
The authors, after a description of the physics of infrared thermographic technique (IRT), analyze the reading of images and the main applications in the veterinary field, compared to the existing literature on the subject and to their experimental researches. IRT lends itself to countless applications in biology, thanks to its characteristics of versatility, lack of invasiveness and high sensitivity. Probably the major limitation to its application in the animal lies in the ease of use and in its extreme sensitivity. From September 2009 to October 2010, the experimental investigation with the thermo camera took into consideration 110 animals (92 dogs and 18 cats), without any selection criteria. All patients were brought to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Milan University by the owner, to be examined by a specialist, or to undergo one of the following diagnostic procedures: X-rays, computed tomography, or ultrasound examinations; finally some patients were brought in for surg...