Rodent

Nest building as an indicator of health and welfare

We demonstrate the utility of nest building behavior in laboratory mice as an indicator of welfare. Nest scoring is a sensitive technique that is altered by temperature, illness, and aggression. The time to integrate into nest test (TINT) is a...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Gaskill, B. N., Karas, A. Z., Garner. J. P. et al. 2013. Nest building as an indicator of health and welfare. JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) 83, e51012.

Effects of cage enrichment on heart rate, blood pressure, and activity of female Sprague-Dawley and spontaneously hypertensive rats at rest and after acute challenges

Here we sought to determine whether a nonsocial cage enrichment program, identical to one we previously used with male rats, was effective in reducing heart rate or systolic blood pressure (SBP) in female Sprague-Dawley rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)....

Year Published: 2012Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Azar, T. A., Sharp, J. L., Lawson, D. M. 2012. Effects of cage enrichment on heart rate, blood pressure, and activity of female Sprague-Dawley and spontaneously hypertensive rats at rest and after acute challenges. JAALAS 51(3), 339-344.

Playful handling as social enrichment for individually- and group-housed laboratory rats

Social housing is recommended for laboratory rats because they are highly social mammals but research constraints or medical issues often demand individual housing and, when social housing is practiced, it typically involves housing with only one or two conspecifics. We...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Handling, Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Cloutier, S., Baker, C., Wahl, K. et al. 2013. Playful handling as social enrichment for individually- and group-housed laboratory rats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 143(2-4), 85-95.

Availability of feces-free areas in rodent shoebox cages

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (the Guide) recommends that terrestrial mammals be provided space free of urine and feces in which to rest. To evaluate the feasibility of meeting this recommendation, the author examined the...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Boivin, G. P. 2013. Availability of feces-free areas in rodent shoebox cages. Lab Animal 42(4), 135-141.

Behavior of laboratory mice is altered by light pollution within the housing environment

Environmental light-dark cycles play an important role in behavioural and physiological processes. It is essential that laboratory vivaria be designed to properly control the light conditions in which laboratory mice are housed; however, this is not universally the case. Some...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Bedrosian, T. A., Vaughn, C. A., Weil, Z. M. et al. 2013. Behavior of laboratory mice is altered by light pollution within the housing environment. Animal Welfare 22(4), 483-487.

Are you real? Visual simulation of social housing by mirror image stimulation in single housed mice

Individual housing of social species is a common phenomenon in laboratory animal facilities. Single housing, however, is known to inflict social deprivation with a number of detrimental consequences. Aiming to improve housing conditions of single housed rodents, we investigated the...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Fuss, J., Richter, S. H., Steinle, J. et al. 2013. Are you real? Visual simulation of social housing by mirror image stimulation in single housed mice. Behavioural Brain Research 243, 191-198.

Effect of light intensity as determined by cage rack position on tumor growth in a mouse model of melanoma

Within the typical laboratory animal housing facility, animals may be exposed to varying intensities of light as a result of cage type, cage position, light source, and other factors. While evidence exists that light contamination during the dark phase of...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Suckow, M. A., Wilhite, S., Wolter, W. R. et al. 2013. Effect of light intensity as determined by cage rack position on tumor growth in a mouse model of melanoma. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 670 (Abstract #P178).

Validation of a refined technique for taking repeated blood samples from juvenile and adult mice

Repeated blood sampling from laboratory animals is desirable in certain experimental designs and also for reducing the number of animals used in research. Biochemical methods for analysing blood samples require only small blood volumes to be collected (typically 20-40 μL)....

Year Published: 2013Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Sadler, A. M., Bailey, S. J. 2013. Validation of a refined technique for taking repeated blood samples from juvenile and adult mice. Laboratory Animals 47(4), 316-319.

Can seeds help mice with the daily grind?

Some laboratory mice gnaw food pellets without ingesting much of the gnawed material, resulting in the production of waste material. The fact that this food grinding behavior is not seen in all individuals of a particular strain suggests that it...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Pritchett-Corning, K. R., Keefe, R., Garner, J. P. et al. 2013. Can seeds help mice with the daily grind? Laboratory Animals 47(4), 312-315.

Housing of female mice in a new environment and its influence on post-surgical behaviour and recovery

The transportation of mice into a new clean cage after surgery is a standard procedure but might have detrimental effects during the critical post-surgical recovery phase. To analyse the effect of post-surgical housing, female C57BL/6J mice housed in their familiar...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Jirkof, P., Cesarovic, N., Rettich, A. et al. 2013. Housing of female mice in a new environment and its influence on post-surgical behaviour and recovery. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 48, 209-217.