Rodent

The 3Rs in experimental liver disease

Patients with cirrhosis present multiple physiological and immunological alterations that play a very important role in the development of clinically relevant secondary complications to the disease. Experimentation in animal models is essential to understand the pathogenesis of human diseases and,...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Disease/Experimental ModelAnimal Type: All/General, Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Martinez-Lopez, S., Angel-Gomis, E., Sanchez-Ardid, E. et al. 2023. The 3Rs in experimental liver disease. Animals 13(14), 2357.

A field-based adaptation of the classic morris water maze to assess learning and memory in a free-living animal

Free-living animals rely on cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, for numerous aspects of their survival. However, research involving these mechanisms is often limited to the laboratory where animals are far removed from natural influences. Here, we adapted the...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: McKay, L., Hunninck, L., Sheriff, M. 2020. A field-based adaptation of the classic morris water maze to assess learning and memory in a free-living animal. Animal Behavior and Cognition 9(4), 396–407.

Play in rats: Association across contexts and types, and analysis of structure

Play has been proposed as a promising indicator of positive animal welfare. We aimed to study play in rats across contexts (conspecific/heterospecific) and types (social: pinning, being pinned; solitary: scampering), and we investigated its structure using behavioral sequence analysis. Group-housed...

Year Published: 2014Topics: Natural Behavior, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Melotti, L., Bailoo, J., Murphy, E. et al. 2014. Play in rats: Association across contexts and types, and analysis of structure. Animal Behavior and Cognition 1(4), 489–501.

Social transmission of Pavlovian fear: Fear-conditioning by-proxy in related female rats

Pairing a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS; e.g., a tone) to an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US; e.g., a foot-shock) leads to associative learning such that the tone alone will elicit a conditioned response (e.g., freezing). Individuals can also acquire fear...

Year Published: 2014Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Jones, C. E., Riha, P. D., Gore, A. C. et al. 2014. Social transmission of Pavlovian fear: Fear-conditioning by-proxy in related female rats. Animal Cognition 17(3), 827–834.

Refinement of animal experiments: Replacing traumatic methods of laboratory animal marking with non-invasive alternatives

Reliable methods for identifying rodents play an important role in ensuring the success of preclinical studies. However, animal identification remains a trivial laboratory routine that is not often discussed, despite the fact that more than 6 million rodents are used...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Identification MethodAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Klabukov, I., Shestakova, V., Krasilnikova, O. et al. 2023. Refinement of animal experiments: Replacing traumatic methods of laboratory animal marking with non-invasive alternatives. Animals 13(22), 3452.

Using photographs for rating severity degrees of clinical appearance in research mice enables valid discrimination of extreme but not mild and moderate conditions: A pilot study

To ensure good animal welfare in laboratory research and in stockbreeding severity ratings of the animals´ wellbeing are essential. The current study investigated how valid raters can evaluate different severity degrees of clinical appearance and how ratings might be influenced...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: rueger, J. C., Boecker, M., Gauggel, S. et al. 2023. Using photographs for rating severity degrees of clinical appearance in research mice enables valid discrimination of extreme but not mild and moderate conditions: A pilot study. PLOS ONE 18(11), e0287965.

Challenges and advanced concepts for the assessment of learning and memory function in mice

The mechanisms underlying the formation and retrieval of memories are still an active area of research and discussion. Manifold models have been proposed and refined over the years, with most assuming a dichotomy between memory processes involving non-conscious and conscious...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Lang, B., Kahnau, P., Hohlbaum, K. et al. 2023. Challenges and advanced concepts for the assessment of learning and memory function in mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Social context increases ultrasonic vocalizations during restraint in adult mice

Adult mice emit many ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interaction tasks, but only a few studies have yet reported USVs in stressed adult mice. Our aim was to study which experimental conditions favor USV emission during behaviors associated with different...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Restraint, Social Housing & Companionship, VocalizationAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Lefebvre, E., Granon, S., Chauveau, F. 2020. Social context increases ultrasonic vocalizations during restraint in adult mice. Animal Cognition 23(2), 351–359.

Moving away from soiled bedding sentinels—The (R)evolution in rodent health screening

Traditional health monitoring methods consist of Soiled Bedding Sentinels (SBS), with animals exposed to dirty bedding from colony animals, which require the euthanasia of SBS. Numerous studies have demonstrated that SBS may not accurately represent a colony's health status. During...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Biological Sampling & Physiological MeasurementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Esparza, K. 2023. Moving away from soiled bedding sentinels—The (R)evolution in rodent health screening. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(2), 158–160.

Social vs Nonsocial housing differentially affects perseverative behavior in rats (Ratus norvegicus)

Perseverance, also commonly referred to as grit or industriousness, is the continued effort exerted to complete goal-directed tasks. Many factors, such as stress, can contribute to perseverative behavior, but the role of sociality on perseverance in animal models has not...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Hemmer, B. M., Parrish, A. E., Wise, T. B. et al. 2019. Social vs. Nonsocial housing differentially affects perseverative behavior in rats (Ratus norvegicus). Animal Behavior and Cognition 6(3), 168–178.