Preliminary report of new method for ECG measurement of exercising birds

概要

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To measure the heart rate of diving seabirds, we tested a new method of attaching electrodes and a miniaturized ECG logger with high memory capacity (2 Mbytes) and high frequent sampling (5ms). A needle type electrode was inserted into subcutaneous tissue of Adelie penguins, and an electrode was implanted under the sternum of hens. Both electrodes were connected to a logger attached to the back of the bird. The mean±SD of heart rate of penguins for 3 h and of hens for 1 h during a resting period were 74.9±15.4 bpm and 245.3±12.1 bpm, respectively. The ECG showed electric noise during exercising periods. However, as R peaks were countable in those periods, it was possible to calculate the heart rate during exercising periods from the interval between R peaks. Though the implantation method needs some recovery time for birds after surgery before the ECG measurement, the method reduces the electric noise caused by the locomotor muscle and electrode movement and is suitable to measure the ECG of free-ranging seabirds during dives.
国立極地研究所の論文