New Models to Assess Behavioral and Physiological Performance of Animals during Inhalation Exposures

摘要

Previously the toxicity of fire smoke has been examined primarily in sedentary animals and lethality was noted. The evaluation of escape potential from a toxic environment, however, requires the measurement of sublethal responses in active animals that are escape predictive. To address this need the mouse track model and the guinea pig ergometer model have been developed. The mouse track model was a ventilated 'S' shaped exposure system. Performance was evaluated by two sublethal responses, distance traveled/time and incapacitation. A novel feature of the mouse track model was its ability to detect an early deterioration in performance before incapacitation and death. The guinea pig ergometer model was designed where a 4.9L exposure chamber enclosed a moter driven rubberized wheel. Extrapolation of exercising guinea pig data to human was similar to theoretical models that predict human response to CO. Humans were estimated to progress five times the distance of the guinea pig at a similar level of toxicity for CO.