Betydelsen av tidig hantering av nyanlända försökshundar till en försöksdjursavdelning

Abstract: AstraZeneca in Mölndal (AZRDM) uses beagles bred at Rååhöjdens kennel in Örkelljunga for their research purposes. The staff wishes to have mentally stable dogs to work with, sine stress can effect the research results. The purpose of this study was to put together the testresults from dogs delivered 2003 and 2004, to see if there is a connection between delivery age and testresult. We have also worked out a method to test if early planned handling of the dogs makes a difference on how the dogs later respond in a testsituation, and tried this method in a pilotstudy. The data that we have based our calculations on is 172 dogs, divided into 108 males and 64 females. We found a significant connection between the age at delivery and the testresult in contactability for female dogs delivered in 2003, where increasing age led to decreasing grades in the test at AZRDM. When looking at the difference in testresults between test number two at the kennel and the test at AZRDM we found a significant connection for female dogs delivered during 2003, ie the difference takes on a more negative value with increasing age at delivery. We found a difference between the two sexes in our calculations. The reason for this is uncertain. The method we have worked out to test if early handling has an effect on later testresults, includes dividing of newly arrived beagles into two groups, early and late handling. We used four male dogs in our pilotstudy. Our conclusions are that delivery age has an effect on the contactability of female dogs and that it therefore is important to deliver the dogs at the youngest possible age.