Neonatal behavioral scoring of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): relation to physical condition and survival.
A seven-task behavioral test was performed on 86 common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) infants, 24-36 h following birth. This report describes the test outcome and its relation to physical condition and survival of the infants. The percentage of infants receiving a perfect score on a given task ranged from 30.6 (rooting) to 70.6% (grasping). Heavier infants were more likely to have perfect scores for crawling (F=4.20, P=0.044) and infants with a longer knee-heel length tended to be more likely to have a perfect grasping score (F=3.63, P=0.06). While the modal score was a perfect score for most individual tasks, the modal number of total perfect scores that a given infant received was 3-4 and only 4.7% of infants received perfect scores on all seven tasks. These results suggest that this group of behavioral tasks will produce a variable response within a population of neonates. While no individual behavioral score predicted survival during week 1, the number of perfect scores across all tasks was predictive of survival outcome; infants with a higher total number of perfect scores were more likely to survive (F=6.02, P=0.018). When all combinations of tests were compared, the best predictor of survival was outcome on four of the seven tests, all related to motor skills (F=7.46, P=0.009).
Tardif
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Southwest Regional Primate Research Center, San Antonio, TX 78245-0549. stardif@sfbr.org
Layne
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Cancino
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Smucny
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D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight; D002144:Callithrix / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis