Rodent

Post-surgical environmental enrichment in rodents

Environmental enrichment is a key component of rodent animal welfare since it influences the animal's overall well-being, provides opportunities for activity, and encourages rodent appropriate behaviors. Many aspects of rodent enrichment have received a significant amount of attention during the...

Year Published: 2010Topics: Social Housing & Companionship, Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Baran, S. W., Froberg-Fejko, K., Lecker, J. et al. 2010. Post-surgical environmental enrichment in rodents. Enrichment Record 3, 4-6.

Using environmental enrichment to reduce fighting in mice

A colony of mice (base strain C57Bl6) was transferred to Oregon State University. Fighting was observed in six cages of males (2 to 5 mice per cage) at cage change, but not during daily checks. After discussion with the principal...

Year Published: 2010Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Araki, A. 2010. Using environmental enrichment to reduce fighting in mice. Tech Talk [The Newsletter for Laboratory Animal Science Technicians] 15(4), 6.

The effects of enhancing cage complexity on the behaviour and welfare of laboratory rats

This experiment was carried out to investigate the long-term effects of enhancing cage complexity on behavioural measures of welfare in laboratory rats. We housed 72 rats in groups of four in either ‘enriched' or ‘unenriched' cages for six weeks. Scan...

Year Published: 2010Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Abou-Ismail, U. A., Burman, O. H. P., Nicol, C. J. et al. 2010. The effects of enhancing cage complexity on the behaviour and welfare of laboratory rats. Behavioural Processes 85(2), 172-180.

Quality of blood samples from the saphenous vein compared with the tail vein during multiple blood sampling of mice

A large number of methods for obtaining blood from mice have been published. In our facility, saphenous venepuncture is considered the method of choice for bleeding mice and is believed to have a number of welfare advantages when performed correctly....

Year Published: 2010Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Aasland, K. E., Skjerve, E., Smith, A. J. 2010. Quality of blood samples from the saphenous vein compared with the tail vein during multiple blood sampling of mice. Laboratory Animals 44(1), 25-29.

The effect of three different items of cage furniture on the behaviour of male C57BL/6J mice in the plus-maze test

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of specific regimens of enrichment on the behaviour of C57BL/6J mice in the elevated plus-maze test (EPM). A total of 192 male C57BL/6J mice were allocated randomly to 32 cages....

Year Published: 2010Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Õkva, K., Nevalainen, T., Mauranen, K. et al. 2010. The effect of three different items of cage furniture on the behaviour of male C57BL/6J mice in the plus-maze test. Animal Welfare 19(4), 401-409.

Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive bias in rats

People's affective or emotional state can alter their cognitive processing, biasing interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. Those in a more positive state interpret such stimuli in a more optimistic manner than those in a negative state. Recently this research has extended...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Brydges, N. M., Leach, M., Nicol, K. et al. 2011. Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive bias in rats. Animal Behaviour 81(1), 169-175.

Refining cage change routines: Comparison of cardiovascular responses to three different ways of cage change in rats

Cage change is one of the unavoidable routines in laboratory rodent care. However, cage change disrupts the rodents' olfactory environment and can evoke stress reactions. In this study, the short-term cardiovascular responses to three different cage change procedures were compared...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Meller, A., Kasanen, I., Rukšėnas, O. et al. 2011. Refining cage change routines: Comparison of cardiovascular responses to three different ways of cage change in rats. Laboratory Animals 45(3), 167-173.

Comparative analysis of blood sampling techniques in the rat

Blood sampling is one of the most common procedures performed on laboratory animals as part of scientific research. As an ongoing commitment, our institution has identified a need to improve the current blood sampling method in rats from both a...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Mathieu, C. 2011. Comparative analysis of blood sampling techniques in the rat. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 738 (Abstract #PS81).

The beneficial effects of enrichment on diabetic mice

In the last issue of The Enrichment Record, Emily Patterson-Kane and I reported on the work (Cao, Liu et al.) in which investigators demonstrated that even short-term exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) improved resistance to cancer in a number of...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Lett, G. S. 2011. The beneficial effects of enrichment on diabetic mice. Enrichment Record 6, 5.

How do rats respond to playing radio in the animal facility?

In the animal facility, a range of different sounds are present. On the one hand, rats and humans will regard sound and noise differently even within the audible range, but on the other hand mice and rats being very adaptable...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Krohn, T. C., Salling, B., Kornerup Hansen, A. 2011. How do rats respond to playing radio in the animal facility? Laboratory Animals 45(3), 141-144.