Within the typical laboratory animal housing facility, animals may be exposed to varying intensities of light as a result of cage type, cage position, light source, and other factors. While evidence exists that light contamination...
Conventional bleeding of small laboratory animals is often associated with stress and injuries that can cause haematomas, inflammation and ultimately the death of animals under investigation. Here, we used faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as an indicator...
The EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes specifically states: Animals, except those which are naturally solitary, shall be socially housed in stable groups of compatible individuals. Even in cases where...
Our institution opened the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurologic Research Institute (NRI) in November of 2010. This facility houses a team of world renowned researchers working with mice and rats to develop treatments for childhood...
This is the third volume of discussions that took place on the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum (LAREF). This forum is dedicated to the exchange of personal experiences of refining the conditions under which...
Physiological and psychological effects of listening to music have been documented in humans. The changes in physiology, cognition and brain chemistry and morphology induced by music have been studied in animal models, providing evidence that...
Owing to their naturally aggressive behaviour, male mice are often housed individually in toxicity studies. However, several publications advocate group-housing of mice to enable normal social behaviour and interactions between the animals. This refinement project...
Managing and assessing well-being in laboratory mice (Mus musculus) is both challenging and necessary. Assessments intended to detect negative welfare states in mice are usually performed via observation of animals in the home cage, but...
Minimizing and alleviating pain and distress in laboratory mice without compromising the methodologic integrity of research is a crucial goal. However, current methods for welfare assessment in mice are not well suited to cageside checks...