List of potential reflex actions, barotrauma symptoms, and injury symptoms for scoring vitality

Original description of RAMP included scoring of reflex actions and their summation to express animal impairment (Davis 2010). Additional research showed that inclusion of injury scoring could enhance the summation and expression of animal impairment and its correlation with fitness outcomes. The importance of injury and reflex actions for scoring animal impairment was shown for walleye pollock and Pacific halibut (Davis and Ottmar, 2006), crabs (Stoner et al. 2008), red snapper (Campbell et al. 2010), sharks, rays, and chimaeras (Braccini et al. 2012), sockeye salmon (Nguyen et al. 2014), and lemon shark (Danylchuk et al. 2014). In consideration of these results, RAMP can include scoring for reflex actions and injury, including barotrauma.

Reflexes can be tested in unrestrained or restrained animals. Tests can be adapted to experimental or operational conditions needed in particular situations and for specific species. Calculation of RAMP for reflex impairment or RAMP modified for barotrauma and injury is as follows. Alternative scoring methods have been discussed by Meeremans et al. 2017 for more detailed information.

Reflex actions are naturally present in all animals. When one or more reflex actions are no longer present, impairment is scored. Reflex actions are not impaired (0) when strong or easily observed, and scored impaired (1) when weak or not present. A barotrauma or injury symptom is scored present when easily observed (1) and absent (0) when not present. Reflex, barotrauma, and injury scores for an individual animal are then summed and divided by the total observable impairments possible to calculate proportion impairment. The impairment score is then correlated with mortality to produce RAMP.