Rodent

Adaptive wheel exercise for mouse models of Parkinson’s Disease

Background: Physical exercise has been extensively studied for its therapeutic properties in neurological disease, particularly Parkinson's Disease (PD). However, the established techniques for exercise in mice are not well suited to motor-deficient disease-model animals, rely on spontaneous activity or force...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Disease/Experimental ModelAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Skelton, H., Grogan, D., Kotlure, A. et al. 2025. Adaptive wheel exercise for mouse models of Parkinson's Disease. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 414, 110314.

An exploration of the postural, location- and social contact- related sub-characteristics of inactive but awake behaviour as a depression-like indicator in mice

Inactive behaviour is essential to life. However, specific forms of inactivity may be indicative of compromised welfare in certain captive conditions. Inactive but awake behaviour (IBA - spontaneous, motionless awake behaviour without interacting with the surroundings) has been documented in...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Trevarthen, A. C., Resasco, A., Finnegan, E. M. et al. 2024. An exploration of the postural, location- and social contact- related sub-characteristics of inactive but awake behaviour as a depression-like indicator in mice. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 281, 106431.

Exploring pet rat care: A comprehensive survey of husbandry, health, behavior, and the associations between caretaker attitudes, attachment, and husbandry practices

Pet rats are still understudied in terms of animal welfare and human-animal interaction research. An extensive online survey targeting German-speaking rat caretakers was conducted (n = 978). One of the study's goals was to investigate husbandry practices, health indicators, rat...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: Rat

Citation: Schneidewind, S., Lesch, R., Heizmann, V. et al. 2024. Exploring pet rat care: A comprehensive survey of husbandry, health, behavior, and the associations between caretaker attitudes, attachment, and husbandry practices. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 75, 1–19.

Refining urine collection in mice: Development of an innovative urine collection device

Urine collection can be challenging in studies involving small rodents like mice, as the actual methods of collection are anxiogenic and constrain animal welfare while having high variability in the volume of urine collected. To improve the current methods and...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Douté, M., Monzali, C., Nicoletti, A. et al. 2024. Refining urine collection in mice: Development of an innovative urine collection device. Laboratory Animals 58(6), 612–615.

Burrowing for answers: Investigating Syrian hamster welfare through owner surveys

Background: Syrian hamsters are a relatively common pet species in the UK. However, we know very little about how they are kept. The aim of this study was to identify areas of good and poor practices among Syrian hamster owners...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Hamster, Rodent

Citation: Fox, A., Neville, V. 2024. Burrowing for answers: Investigating Syrian hamster welfare through owner surveys. Veterinary Record 195(9), e4534.

Rattling the cage: Behaviour and resource use of mice in laboratory and pet cages

Conventional housing for laboratory mice limits the expression of species-specific behaviours and restricts the control over their environment, thus failing to guarantee the animals' welfare. To better understand the behaviour and resource use of laboratory mice, we housed mice (n...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Environmental Enrichment, HousingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Gygax, M., Fortes, M. S., Voelkl, B. et al. 2024. Rattling the cage: Behaviour and resource use of mice in laboratory and pet cages. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 278, 106381.

Feel-good songs: Application of a novel playback paradigm to induce a positive affective state in juvenile male Wistar rats

Across animal welfare science there is a lack of validated models of positive affective states. Previous work has shown that presentation of contrastingly valenced ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) to rats alters their behaviour. However, the potential of using playback of USVs...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, VocalizationAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Hammond, T. J., Brown, S. M., Meddle, S. L. et al. 2024. Feel-good songs: Application of a novel playback paradigm to induce a positive affective state in juvenile male Wistar rats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 275, 106296.

The implementation of tunnel handling in a mouse breeding facility revealed strain-specific behavioural responses

As a step towards implementing non-aversive handling techniques at a big mouse breeding facility in Germany, tunnel handling was introduced in a breeding unit comprising three inbred mouse strains. To assess whether tunnel handling would be feasible for the animal...

Year Published: 2024Topics: HandlingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Hohlbaum, K., Merle, R., Warnke, R. et al. 2024. The implementation of tunnel handling in a mouse breeding facility revealed strain-specific behavioural responses. Laboratory Animals 58(6), 552–564.

Non-invasive acquisition of vital data in anesthetized rats using laser and radar application

The aim of this study was to verify the possibility of obtaining vital sign information using a laser and radar sensor in a manner that is non-invasive and painless for test animals. A dataset was obtained from respiratory movement of...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Kawabe, T., Kita, S., Ohmura, I. et al. 2024. Non-invasive acquisition of vital data in anesthetized rats using laser and radar application. Laboratory Animals 58(6), 591–601.

Murine model of minimally invasive nasal depot (MIND) technique for central nervous system delivery of blood–brain barrier-impermeant therapeutics

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) poses a substantial obstacle to the successful delivery of therapeutics to the central nervous system (CNS). The transnasal route has been extensively explored, but success rates have been modest due to challenges related to the precise...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Drug/Substance AdministrationAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Chua, A. J., Di Francesco, V., D'Souza, A. et al. 2024. Murine model of minimally invasive nasal depot (MIND) technique for central nervous system delivery of blood–brain barrier-impermeant therapeutics. Lab Animal 53(12), 363–375.