Husbandry & Management

Nature calls: Intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots

Understanding why some species thrive in captivity, while others struggle to adjust, can suggest new ways to improve animal care. Approximately half of all Psittaciformes, a highly threatened order, live in zoos, breeding centres and private homes. Here, some species...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Bird, Parrot

Citation: Mellor, E. L., McDonald Kinkaid, H. K., Mendl, M. T. et al. 2021. Nature calls: Intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288(1960), 20211952

The effect of substrate on water quality in ornamental fish tanks

Almost all home aquaria contain substrate, either as intentional enrichment or for aesthetic purposes. For fishes, benefits of structural enrichment have been well considered, particularly in research and aquaculture settings. However, our understanding of the impacts of tank substrate as...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish, Salmon, Tilapia, Trout, Zebrafish

Citation: Vanderzwalmen, M., Sánchez Lacalle, D., Tamilselvan, P. et al. 2022. The effect of substrate on water quality in ornamental fish tanks. Animals 12(19), 2679.

Minimising aggression in CD-1 and CD-1 background male mice with different enrichment types

Cage-mate aggression is a well-known problem that is more prevalent in certain strains of mice and is one of the most common reasons for single housing, increased stress levels, premature death and euthanasia. Numerous methods can be implemented to ameliorate...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & Management, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Veness, A., Coyle, C., Murphy, S. et al. 2023. Minimising aggression in CD-1 and CD-1 background male mice with different enrichment types. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(1), 74–76.

Effect of animal stocking density and habitat enrichment on survival and vitality of wild green shore crabs, Carcinus maenas, maintained in the laboratory

The wide geographic distribution, large size and ease of capture has led to decapod crustaceans being used extensively in laboratory experiments. Recently in the United Kingdom decapod crustaceans were listed as sentient beings, resulting in their inclusion in animal care...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Handling, Housing, Husbandry & Management, Stocking DensityAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Wilson, C. H., Wyeth, R. C., Spicer, J. I. et al. 2022. Effect of animal stocking density and habitat enrichment on survival and vitality of wild green shore crabs, Carcinus maenas, maintained in the laboratory. Animals 12(21), 2970.

Zebrafish aversion to infrasound in an open field test

Aquatic species are capable of detecting infrasound (sub-20 Hz frequencies) which may be a source of anthropogenic pollution and have a detrimental impact on the environmental fitness of fish. Infrasound is generated by infrastructure, producing acoustic frequency peaks that are...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Fish, Zebrafish

Citation: Scatterty, K. R., Pitman, T., Eckersley, T. et al. 2023. Zebrafish aversion to infrasound in an open field test. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1019368.

Mouse food hopper dividers for a refined feeding method

This project aimed to establish whether a different method of presenting diet “ad-libitum” to laboratory mice could lower the negative consequences of exceess food, such as decreased quality, palatability and increased cost. The main aim of this project was to...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Orosz, G. 2022. Mouse food hopper dividers for a refined feeding method. Animal Technology and Welfare 21(3), 160–176.

Longitudinal studies on Alzheimer disease mouse models with multiple tracer PET/CT: Application of reduction and refinement principles in daily practice to safeguard animal welfare during progressive aging

Longitudinal studies on mouse models related to Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology play an important role in the investigation of therapeutic targets to help pharmaceutical research in the development of new drugs and in the attempt of an early diagnosis that...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Husbandry & Management, Imaging & Electrophysiological RecordingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Palumbo, G., Kunze, L. H., Oos, R. et al. 2023. Longitudinal studies on Alzheimer disease mouse models with multiple tracer PET/CT: Application of reduction and refinement principles in daily practice to safeguard animal welfare during progressive aging. Animals 13(11), 1812.

Effects of different bedding materials on production performance, lying behavior and welfare of dairy buffaloes

Different bedding materials have important effects on the behavioristics, production performance and welfare of buffalo. This study aimed to compare the effects of two bedding materials on lying behavior, production performance and animal welfare of dairy buffaloes. More than 40...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Cattle

Citation: Niu, K., An, Z., Yao, Z. et al. 2023. Effects of different bedding materials on production performance, lying behavior and welfare of dairy buffaloes. Animals 13(5), 842.

Exposure to soiled bedding reduces abnormal repetitive behaviors in mice

Hygiene management protocols in laboratory mouse husbandries worldwide most commonly employ soiled bedding-exposed sentinel mice to monitor the occurrence of infections in mouse colonies. Using this approach, sentinel mice repeatedly receive a mixture of used bedding, supplied by a variety...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Müller, K., Lengheimer, T., Kral-Pointner, J. B. et al. 2022. Exposure to soiled bedding reduces abnormal repetitive behaviors in mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16, 1062864.

Seminatural environments for rodent behavioral testing: A representative design improving animal welfare and enhancing replicability

The low replicability of scientific studies has become an important issue. One possible cause is low representativeness of the experimental design employed. Already in the 1950's, Egon Brunswick pointed out that experimental setups ideally should be based on a random...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Housing, Husbandry & Management, Natural BehaviorAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Hernández-Arteaga, E., Ågmo, A. 2023. Seminatural environments for rodent behavioral testing: A representative design improving animal welfare and enhancing replicability. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17, 1192213.