Includes refinements to diet, bedding or flooring, cage changing, lighting, temperature, noise levels, etc.
In standard laboratory environments mice are housed at 20-24 °C. However, their thermoneutral zone ranges between 26 °C and 34 °C. This challenge to homeostasis is by definition stressful, and could therefore affect many aspects...
Veterinary technician Evelyn Skoumbourdis and environmental enrichment coordinator Casey Coke Murphy discuss proper feeding of small laboratory mammals.
Documenting behavioral effects of routine procedures such as the cage washing process in nonhuman primate facilities is an important step in identifying procedures that may be stressful to the primates, and in determining ways to...
The result demonstrates that bedding material, a variable not often considered in research, could have profound influence on the data for many studies of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or metabolism.
Refinement of animal care and housing is an important shared goal - and challenge - of the team of research, veterinary, and animal care personnel charged with ensuring the wellbeing of laboratory animals. This study...
We suggest that by providing animals with food in a more natural form (i.e., not cut to a standardized size), they would have an opportunity to process the food in a manner that best approaches...
Laboratory rats are typically housed in clear or opaque cages on multi-tiered racks. Clear-walled cages allow a view of the room and facilitate visual social contact with neighbouring rats but may induce anxiety due to...
Data did not reveal a clear preference for solid floors. Juveniles were found most often on wire floors while among adults, a preference for solid floors was apparent only in females, and only when a...
Severe feather pecking, a potentially stereotypic behaviour in chickens (Gallus gallus), can be reduced by providing enrichment. However, there is little comparative information available on the effectiveness of different types of enrichment. Providing forages to...
Husbandry conditions in a laboratory environment can be barren and monotonous. Improving those conditions by providing opportunities for laboratory mice to engage in species-specific behavior can improve their mental and physical well-being. Giving the animals...