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...
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...
In the last issue of The Enrichment Record, Emily Patterson-Kane and I reported on the work (Cao, Liu et al.) in which investigators demonstrated that even short-term exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) improved resistance to...
Improving the home cages of laboratory mice by environmental enrichment has been widely used to reduce cage stereotypies and anxiety-related behaviour in behavioural tests. However, enrichment studies differ substantially in type, complexity and variation of...
The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of environmental enrichment on the performance of C57BL/6 mice kept in conventional animal facilities (open cage; OC) and individually ventilated caging system (IVC). We analyzed...
Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) represents small, random deviations from symmetry in bilaterally symmetrical anatomic characteristics, is highly correlated with the amount of stress during development, and thus, is considered as a potential welfare indicator. In the...
Environmental enrichment, besides having a great impact on animal welfare, can also be a potential variable in experimental research. Thus, we investigated whether enrichment of cages with paper tissues or plastic tunnels affects scientific outcome...
Dynamic changes in housing and husbandry techniques based on the concept of 3Rs should be included as routine practice in breeding and experimental animal facilities tending to improve animal welfare. Immunosupressed mice are susceptible to...
Environmental variables and husbandry practices can influence physiology and alter behavior in mice. Our study evaluated the effects of cage change on serum corticosterone levels and anxiety-like behaviors in C57BL/6 male mice. We examined the...