HRV como indicador de bem-estar e recuperação no lagarto teiú, Salvator merianae

Abstract

The welfare of captive animals acquired significant degrees of concern due to several ethical and instrumental reasons. However, the absence of agreement on the definition of the physiological mean of welfare contribute to the lack of objective tools to measure/quantify it. Current methodologies used to infer welfare are based on behavioral indexes and they are focused on mammalian species. Reptiles are described as ‘behaviorally simple’, which makes assessing their welfare based on human observations of behavioral characteristics rather inconsistent. In this regard, analyses of the regulatory physiological function have the potential to provide reliable evaluations. In this project, we propose using the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis as a measurement to attest the integrity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and so, as an index of welfare and recovery in tegu lizards, Salvator merianae. We followed the HRV during sequential protocols commonly employed in animal facilities. The lizards had their variability traced after handling and inspection, injections, prophylaxis, sedation, and anesthetic plan. Our study confirms the HRV characterization for our design species, tegu lizard Salvator merianae. The analysis was efficient in signalizing both the depressor effect provoked by each maneuver and the recovered variability values afterwards. Time needed for recovery was shown to be correlate to the disturbance degree created by the maneuvers. We exhibit the HRV value as assess method under the tested terms.