The fine-scale grading of the severity experienced by animals used in research constitutes a key element of the 3Rs (replace, reduce, and refine) principles and a legal requirement in the European Union Directive 2010/63/EU. Particularly...
Body temperature changes in laboratory mice are often assessed by invasive and stressful methods, which may confound the measurement. Infrared thermography is a possible non-invasive alternative, but the cost of standard thermal cameras, lack of...
Burrowing and nest building are examples of highly motivated innate behaviours in rodents. Assessments based on these behaviours can be used as non-invasive indicators of pain, distress and suffering. In this study, we investigated the...
Cardiovascular exercise (CVE) is associated with healthy aging and reduced risk of disease in humans, with similar benefits seen in animals. Most rodent studies, however, have used shorter intervention periods of a few weeks to...
Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models are created using fragments of human tumors subcutaneously implanted into immunodeficient mice. Solid tumor engraftment of mice is commonly performed with a 10-13 gauge trocar needle under general anesthesia. In this...
An animal health program involves identification of health conditions, as well as treatment and disposition of rodents. In most facilities with a large rodent population, the initial identification of health conditions is typically accomplished by...
This article describes a creative solution to enable poor nest building mice to use compressed cotton squares: putting the squares in a blender for 5 seconds. This results in a billowy, completely shredded fluff that...
Since funding can be scarce, I seek novel and economical ways to promote the psychological wellbeing of the animals through environmental enrichment and allow research animals to express species-specific behaviors and control their environment to...
The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent (and now Rabbit) Welfare Group held a one-day meeting on 14 November 2017 in Weybridge, UK. The first session addressed meeting animals' needs and aiming for a 'good life', with the needs...
Typical husbandry solutions for aggressive mice are individual housing or separation into smaller groups. Individual housing is stressful to mice, while separation into smaller groups can increase housing-related costs for the researchers. To alleviate these...