The “Black Mice Dataset” is a large set of images of C57BL/6JRj mice and a corresponding “well-being” label. It encompasses images of mice that have (or have not) undergone different procedures that impaired their well-being. Images were taken at different points in time before and after the procedures. The images were obtained within the framework of a project, in which the impact of procedures frequently performed in animal experimentation on the well-being and stress levels of mice was systematically assessed by using the mouse Grimace scale (MGS), among other animal-based parameters. According to the treatment of the mice, the data set is divided into the three subsets: KXN (ketamine/xylazine anesthesia) [1], IN (inhalation anesthesia with isoflurane) [2], and C (castration) [3].

Version 1

The first version of the data set is used and described in detail in [4]. It includes 18273 images (13352 KXN, 2451 IN and 2470 C) with mean size 857 x 879. The label information contains a time label for every image (time relative to treatment). If you are using this data set in your research, please consider giving credit by citing our paper:

Andresen, N., Wöllhaf, M., Hohlbaum, K., Lewejohann, L., Hellwich, O., Thöne-Reineke, C., & Belik, V. (2020). Towards a fully automated surveillance of well-being status in laboratory mice using deep learning: Starting with facial expression analysis. PLOS ONE, 15(4), e0228059. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228059

 

@article{andresen2020towards,
title={Towards a fully automated surveillance of well-being status in laboratory mice using deep learning: Starting with facial expression analysis},
author={Andresen, Niek and W{\”o}llhaf, Manuel and Hohlbaum, Katharina and Lewejohann, Lars and Hellwich, Olaf and Th{\”o}ne-Reineke, Christa and Belik, Vitaly},
journal={Plos one},
volume={15},
number={4},
pages={e0228059},
year={2020},
publisher={Public Library of Science San Francisco, CA USA}
}

[1] Hohlbaum K, Bert B, Dietze S, Palme R, Fink H, Thöne-Reineke C. Severity classification of repeated isoflurane anesthesia in C57BL/6JRj mice – Assessing the degree of distress. PloS One. 2017;12(6):e0179588.

[2] Hohlbaum K, Bert B, Dietze S, Palme R, Fink H, Thöne-Reineke C. Impact of repeated anesthesia with ketamine and xylazine on the well-being of C57BL/6JRj mice. PloS One. 2018;13(9):e0203559.

[3] currently under review

[4] currently under review