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Past and present uses of Bank voles in research.

Bank voles have in the past been used as research subjects in areas as diverse as predator/prey interactions, population dynamics, effects of photoperiod on reproduction, and e.g. how accumulation of heavy metals and pollution with radioactive isotopes influence the organism plus in many studies concerning prevalence of virus and virus antibodies, bacteria and various parasites. Table 1 (below) attempts to give an impression of the relative magnitude of these studies in the literature the past 50 years and Table 2 concerns papers published in 2005/6.

The categories used in the tables are naturally rather crude. The papers concerned all include one, or more, of the words "Vole", "Voles" or "Clethrionomys" in the title and have been indexed by PubMed. The term "vole" is used to designate species from several genera, but these papers solely concern species of the genus Clethrionomys.

Table 1

Table 2

Area of research

n Papers

% of Papers

Area of research

n Papers

% of Papers

Diseases . 1

0,3

 Various psychopharmaca. 1 2,5
Chimerical embryos.             2 0,6 Physiological studies. 1 2,5
Prions. 3 0,9 Behaviour; Cognition; learning. 2 5,0
Diabetic bank voles. 5 1,4 Radioactivity (Chernobyl..) and its effect on the vole physiology. 3 7,5
Digestional issues. 6 1,7 Prions. 3 7,5
Energy balance. 6 1,7 Hormones vs. seasonal changes/Photoperiod. 4 10
Phylogeny. 7 2,0 Past/present Geographic Distribution 4 10
Various psychopharmaca. 7 2,0 Virus in voles (One paper concerning Diabetic voles) . 4 10
Various enzymes. 11 3,1 Heavy metals and physiology. 6 15
DNA. 11 3,1 Parasites in voles. 6 15
Population dynamics and past/present Geographic Distribution. 11 3,1 Population dynamics (various parametres). 6 15
Hormones vs. seasonal changes /Photoperiod. 14 4,0      

Behaviour; Cognition; learning.

15 4,3      
Radioactivity (Chernobyl..) and its effect on the vole physiology. 20 5,7      
Bacterial flora in voles. 27 7,7      
Heavy metals and physiology. 30 8,5      
Physiological studies. 36 10,2      
Parasites in voles . 41 11,6      
Reproductional issues. 46 13,1      
Virus in voles. 53 15,1      

TOTAL

352

100%

 

40

100%
           

Bank vole stereotypies have been described in 19 (5.4%) of the papers published in the period 1984-2005 - only one "stereotypic paper" has been published in 2005/6. The main focus of these papers has been to determine the extent of opioid, dopaminergic, serotonergic and noradrenergic involvement in stereotypies; basic research in how stereotypies interact (are provoked) with (by) the environment while other papers are more descriptive or trying to look into the subject of stereotypies and welfare.

The concept of using stereotyping bank voles as animal models for certain mental disorders was in my opinion founded by the work of mainly Grethe Sorensen in the eighties (focussing on human psychoses) and seven papers is published as of today (december 2006) concerning stereotypies and the effect of various pharmaca on these types of behaviours.

Papers concerning diabetic bank voles amount to five in total, the last published in 2006 - the first four published in the period 2000-2003.

 

Last update: 29. December 2006