Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-13-2024
Original Citation
Guzman M,
Geuther B,
Sabnis G,
Kumar V.
Highly accurate and precise determination of mouse mass using computer vision Patterns. 2024;5(9):101039.
Keywords
JMG
JAX Source
Patterns. 2024;5(9):101039.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2024.101039
Grant
This work was funded by The Jackson Laboratory Directors Inno- vation Fund, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse DA051235 and DA048634 (NIDA; V.K.), National Institute on Aging AG078530 (NIA; V.K.), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke NS078795 (NINDS; M.G.), and the C.C. Little Scholarship Fund (M.G.)
Abstract
Changes in body mass are key indicators of health in humans and animals and are routinely monitored in animal husbandry and preclinical studies. In rodent studies, the current method of manually weighing the animal on a balance causes at least two issues. First, directly handling the animal induces stress, possibly confounding studies. Second, these data are static, limiting continuous assessment and obscuring rapid changes. A non-invasive, continuous method of monitoring animal mass would have utility in multiple biomedical research areas. We combine computer vision with statistical modeling to demonstrate the feasibility of deter- mining mouse body mass by using video data. Our methods determine mass with a 4.8% error across genetically diverse mouse strains with varied coat colors and masses. This error is low enough to replace manual weighing in most mouse studies. We conclude that visually determining rodent mass enables non-invasive, continuous monitoring, improving preclinical studies and animal welfare.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.