title: Behavioral Disturbances: An Innovative Approach to Monitor the Modulatory Effects of a Nutraceutical Diet.
abstract: In dogs, diets are often used to modulate behavioral disturbances related to chronic anxiety and stress caused by intense and restless activity. However, the traditional ways to monitor behavioral changes in dogs are complicated and not efficient. In the current clinical evaluation, a new, simple monitoring system was used to assess the effectiveness of a specific diet in positively modulating the intense and restless activity of 24 dogs of different ages and breeds. This protocol describes how to easily and rapidly evaluate improvement in a set of symptoms related to generalized anxiety by using a specific sensor, a mobile phone app, a wireless router, and a computer. The results showed that dogs treated with specific diets showed significant improvement in the times spent active and at rest after 10 days (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). These dogs also showed an overall significant improvement in clinical and behavioral symptoms. A specific sensor, along with its related hardware, was demonstrated to successfully monitor behavioral changes relating to movement in dogs.
authors.affiliation: School of Specialization in Clinical Biochemistry, "G. d'Annunzio" University; alessandro811@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Cerbo
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology and Veterinary Clinic Section, University of Sassari.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sechi
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Department, Forza10 USA Corp.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Canello
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Department, Forza10 USA Corp.
authors.forename: Gianandrea
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guidetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology and Veterinary Clinic Section, University of Sassari.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology and Veterinary Clinic Section, University of Sassari.
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cocco
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004032:Diet; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal