Includes structural, behavioral, food, and auditory enrichment.
In my view it is vitally important that scientists and management pay attention to what animal technologists and care staff have to say about the care and requirements of experimental animals.
Husbandry conditions in a laboratory environment can be barren and monotonous. Improving those conditions by providing opportunities for laboratory mice to engage in species-specific behavior can improve their mental and physical well-being. Giving the animals...
The combination of mouse igloos and running wheels proved to be highly effective in reducing flipping, circling, and jumping.
COST Action B-24 established four working groups to research and discuss issues relevant to laboratory animal science. These included the housing of animals, environmental needs, refinement of procedures, genetically modified animals, and cost-benefit analysis. Based...
The experiment aimed to investigate the effect of type of rooting material and space allowance on explorative and abnormal behaviour in growing pigs. Thirty-six pens with partly slatted concrete floor were allocated to one of...
The behavioral, biochemical, and physiologic consequences of 6 wk of environmental enrichment were evaluated in male Long Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats and compared with those of rats in standard single-housing conditions. Standard housing provided little...
The article, “Environmental and Genetic Activation of a Brain-Adipocyte BDNF/Leptin Axis Causes Cancer Remission and Inhibition,” was first published in Cell on July 8, and quickly echoed by online editions of major journals including The...
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been reported to play important roles in the modulation of anxiety, mood stabilizers, and pathophysiology of affective disorders. Recently, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the BDNF gene (Val66Met) has...
My take on this message is that the research community is gathering enough data from laboratory animals under a variety of environmental conditions, but we are not recording and/or sharing enough information about the animal...
Since the release of the revised Appendix A from the Council of Europe for housing of laboratory animals there have been claims that laboratory animals should be housed under more complex conditions; known popularly as...