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Neonatal behavioral scoring of common marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus ): relation to physical condition and survival[Note 1. Funding: This work was supported by NIH grant R01‐RR02022 ...]
Author(s) -
Tardif S.D.,
Layne D.G.,
Cancino L.,
Smucny D.A.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of medical primatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.31
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1600-0684
pISSN - 0047-2565
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0684.2002.02005.x
Subject(s) - callithrix , marmoset , population , outcome (game theory) , test (biology) , medicine , pediatrics , biology , mathematics , paleontology , environmental health , mathematical economics
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).