Abstract: A method of monitoring activity of an animal, the method comprising the steps of: retaining the animal in an enclosed chamber; controlling a food supply to the animal in the enclosed chamber as a first stimulus; and monitoring the activity of the animal in response to the first stimulus, wherein monitoring the activity of the animal comprises analysing change in a volume of food in the food supply and location of the animal in the enclosed chamber over a predetermined period of time.

Abstract: The present invention enables testing the effect of one or more test agent(s) on one or more animal(s) of a group of animals, preferably insects, to identify agents that affect behavioral properties of the animals. The invention is comprised of the steps of providing animals suitable for testing, bringing those animals into contact with the test agent(s), moving the animals from a growth container to isolate them, prepare and separate the animals for singulation, relocated the animals to a behavior arena, subject the animals to behavioral tracking to assess their behavioral state, and removing the animals from the behavioral tracking to facilitate iterative analysis of further groups. The invention enables a method for preparing a therapeutic compound for the treatment of an animal disease.