Supposed you are a researcher in a prestigious university!

You were then asked by your

superior to study an unknown disease on mice. This disease has been causing a lot of
problems in your lab rats. The following observations of the mice with the disease were taken
by one of your colleagues: (1) moves at a very slow rate, (2) would rather sleep and eat. Using
the methods in the previous exercises in this subject, how will you determine the disease of
the mice? Explain.

Laboratory mice are constantly exposed to different laboratory procedures, medications,

and experiments that normally could influence their overall health resulting to a change in behavior
and physical state. Based on the initial observations, the laboratory mice exhibit lethargic behavior
which could be a result of a disease or other conditions.

There are several laboratory procedures that can be conducted to come up with a plausible
diagnosis that could explain the change in behavior in the laboratory mice. The first step in the
process is to get the required specimen to be used in a series of laboratory tests. The required
specimen could be mice urine, feces, blood samples, and saliva.

Protein tests in mice urine could be used to narrow down possible diseases that affected
the laboratory animal. Presence of protein in urine, a condition known as proteinuria, may indicate
that there is something wrong with the organism (Harley & Langston, 2012).

The urine specimen acquired form the laboratory mice will be exposed to different
chemical solutions to determine what proteins are present in the specimen. Determining the
specific protein present in the urine could help understand what disease led the change in the
rodent’s behavior. However, knowing the specific protein present in the urine is not sufficient
enough to come up with a possible diagnosis as rodents, such as mice and rats, normally secrete a
considerable amount of protein through their urine. To understand further if the protein present in
the urine is the cause of the problem, measuring the concentration of protein can help enlighten
the situation. Using a spectrophotometer, we can determine the concentration of proteins present
in the urine. If the concentration of proteins exceeds the normal concentration, it is safe to conclude
that there is a problem in the mice, which could stem from various reasons, such as bacterial and
viral infection, urinary system failure, stress, and/ or increased hemolysis due to infections.
 Conducting blood tests can also help diagnose the condition of the laboratory animal.
Confirmation of the presence in the blood of abnormal quantities of certain constituents aids in
diagnosing certain diseases. Blood samples will be examined to determine possible deficiencies or
abnormalities in the concentrations of materials present. Based on the observation of the mice, we
can entertain a possibility that the animals have chronic anemia, since some of the observable
symptoms of such disease is lethargy and weakness (Marks & kendall, 2019), which can be seen
in the mice’s behavior. To confirm this possibility, we need to conduct a blood test to determine
the total hemoglobin count. Blood samples are chemically treated to release the hemoglobin from
red blood cells. The released hemoglobin then is bound chemically to cyanide that forms a
compound that absorbs light. The amount of absorbed light is then measured, and this
measurement is directly related to how much hemoglobin is present in the blood (Davis, 2020).
Hemoglobin is a type of protein that carries oxygen from our lungs to all of your tissues and organs
(Eldridge, 2021). As such, any abnormalities of hemoglobin levels or structure can lead to serious
symptoms.

Once we determine the hemoglobin levels in the animals’ blood samples, we can compare
it to a normal amount and make possible assumptions on what disease is affecting the animal.

Laboratory animals are subjected to different experiments that could result to both physical
and psychological changes. These changes, if left undiagnosed and untreated can completely alter
the experiment and change the results entirely. Diagnosing them at an earlier stage could help
prevent such circumstance in the process of the experiment. Mentioned above are just some of the
possible methods in diagnosing the condition of the laboratory animals. There are other advance
ways in diagnosing the animals which requires different specimen and apparatuses and techniques.
It is important to choose the proper methods as it can help greatly in making a proper assumption
on what type of disease or infection that caused the observed behavioral changes.

Reference

Bailey, J. (2018, November 30). Animals In Labs Are Stressed - And That’s Bad For Us Humans,
Too…. Retrieved April 18, 2021 from https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/what-we-
do/blog/animals-labs-are-stressed-and-%E2%80%99s-bad-us-humans-too%E2%80%A6
Davis, C.P. (2020, October 8). Hemoglobin Test: Normal, High, Low Levels. Retrieved April 18,
2020 from https://www.emedicinehealth.com/hemoglobin_levels/article_em.htm

Harley, L., & Langston, C. (2012). Proteinuria in dogs and cats. The Canadian veterinary journal
= La revue veterinaire canadienne, 53(6), 631–638.

Proteinuria in Rats and Mice, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 16, Issue 11, November 1958, Pages
337–340, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1958.tb00651.x