Nesting material has been reported to be beneficial to mice by providing environmental enrichment as well as a means of thermoregulation. Cotton nesting material has been reported to cause conjunctivitis in athymic nude mice. We...
People's affective or emotional state can alter their cognitive processing, biasing interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. Those in a more positive state interpret such stimuli in a more optimistic manner than those in a negative state...
Many compounds are orally administered to laboratory rats using the gavage technique. This technique is stressful for the animal and can cause injury or death if performed incorrectly. Often compounds are suspended in food oils...
Mice are housed at temperatures which increase their basal metabolic rates and impose high energy demands to maintain core temperatures. Thus, energy may be reallocated from other biologic processes to increase heat production. We hypothesized...
In laboratories, mice are housed at ambient temperatures between 20 to 24 °C, which is below their lower critical temperature of 30 °C, but comfortable for human workers. Thus, mice are thermally stressed, which can...
Following a two-week introduction period, pairs of rats were put inside an arena. One was trapped inside a central restrainer, while the other roamed free in the larger space. By day six or seven, on...
Before animal research facilities began using individually ventilated cage (IVC) systems formice, cages were often changed one or more times per week. When using IVC systems, however, it is standard practice to change cages only...
Some experimental procedures are associated with placement of animals in wire-bottom cages. The goal of this study was to evaluate stress-related physiological parameters (heart rate [HR], body temperature [BT], locomotor activity [LA], body weight [BW]...
Historically, we have added approximately half a cup of shredded aspen bedding for nest making into each littering cage. This procedure was continued as we looked into additional environmental enrichment. There are many types of...
The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group holds a one-day meeting every autumn so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on rodent welfare issues and share experiences of the implementation of the 3Rs...