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The Effect of Stray Voltage on Conditioning and Regeneration of Planaria

2001
Stray voltage is an environmental pollutant that causes harmful effects in animals. I became interested in this subject after reading a research paper written by Dr. Christine Ratke. There is an absence of rodents in food storage areas on affected properties. Also, no mosquitoes or frogs are present in the ponds and marshes on these farms. I chose an invertebrate animals, the planaria, as my research test subject because the are native pond-dwellers with sensitive nervous systems which simplify conditioning. My dad helped me to design an apparatus to simulate stray voltage conditions. Our hypothesis was that stray voltage has an adverse effect on the conditioning rate and regeneration of planaria. Most exposure an animal may have to electricity in its environment is alternating current with a frequency of 60 cycles per second (HZ), so I used a generator set at 60 cycles/sec. An animal may also be exposed to a frequency that is higher than 60 Hz, or current that is less than 1/2 of a 60 Hz cycle (transicent currents). I set up a continuous current of 3V at 1 milliampere. To simulate stray volutate I used transient currents produced by a 5V spike. A pulse of 5V at 0.017 seconds was miaintained. Planaria were placed under three conditions, ambient control, constant current and constant current with spikes, for 28 days and conditioned and tested for learning ability on days 1,3,7, 14, 21 and 28. The evaluation of research results was grouped according to perception, behavior changes and production losses.