Chick anxiety-depression screening model

Abstract

The chick anxiety-depression model is a hybrid, dual pharmacological screening assay in which both anxiety and depression present sequentially over a 2 h isolation period. This separation stress paradigm utilizes socially raised domestic fowl chicks, aged 4-6 days posthatch, that are isolated from conspecifics during which distress vocalizations (DVocs) are recorded. DVoc rates during the first 5 min are high and represent the anxiety-like phase; DVoc rates decline over the next 20-30 min to about 50% the initial rate and then stabilize for the remainder of the test session. This last 90 min represents the depression-like phase. These two phases are pharmacologically dissociable in that anxiolytics reduce the rate of DVocs during the anxiety-like phase and antidepressants delay the onset of the depression-like phase by attenuating the decline of DVoc rates. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.