This article discusses environmental enrichment for rodents, mainly mice and rats housed in conventional caging, in U.K. research facilities. Environmental enrichment should allow and encourage animals to perform normal behavioural patterns. Cage furniture cannot be...
Foraging opportunities are a form of environmental enrichment with great potential to improve the welfare of animals in laboratories. Though commonly used with zoo animals, little evidence exists of their use in laboratories. Technicians or...
Nest boxes are a simple and effective form of environmentalenrichment. Rats accept a wide range of nest-box types but have the strongest...preference for enclosed, opaque, thermoplastic boxes. ...Tubes have proven a relatively ineffective enrichment for...
The objective of this study was to test the hypotheses that female rats are stressed by being in the same room as animals subjected to common husbandry and experimental procedures and that the level of...
Mean resting HR values in the mornings prior to human contact were significantly (P
Expanding on the National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, this book deals specifically with mammals in neuroscience and behavioral research laboratories. It offers flexible guidelines for the care of...
In a typical cage of barbered mice, all but one individual will have near-identical patterns of hair loss. The intact individual (the 'barber') is removing hair from its companions. .. Barbers hold down their cage...
Using a rodent model of lead-induced neurotoxicity, we show that environmental enrichment reverses cognitive and molecular deficits induced by this developmental neurotoxicant... At weaning, pups were removed from the lead exposure and housed in isolation...
Environmental enrichment is the alteration of animals' microenvironment to provide them with the opportunity to perfrom species-specific behaviors that we perceive as positive, while reducing abnormal behaviors. [p. 39] Several interesting products are now available...
The question was raised how the environment of guinea pigs can be best enriched in the research laboratory setting. In summary, social-housing is the most species-appropriate living environment for guinea pigs. If a research protocol...