PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anne Habedank
AU  - Birk Urmersbach
AU  - Pia Kahnau
AU  - Lars Lewejohann
TI  - O mouse, where art thou? The Mouse Position Surveillance System (MoPSS) - an RFID based tracking system
AID  - 10.1101/2020.11.13.379719
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.11.13.379719
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/13/2020.11.13.379719.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/13/2020.11.13.379719.full
AB  - Existing methods for analysis of home cage based preference tests are either time consuming, not suitable for group management, expensive and/or based on proprietary equipment that is not freely available. For this reason, we developed an automated system for group housed mice based on radio frequency identification: the Mouse Position Surveillance System (MoPSS). The system uses an Arduino microcontroller with compatible components, it is affordable and easy to rebuild for every laboratory. The MoPSS was validated using female C57BL/6J mice and manual video comparison. It proved to be accurate even for fast moving mice (up to 100 % accuracy after logical reconstruction), and is already implemented in several studies in our laboratory. Here, we provide the complete construction description as well as the validation data and the results of an example experiment. This tracking system will allow group-based preference testing with individually identified mice to be carried out in a convenient manner, creating the foundation for better housing conditions from the animals’ perspective.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.