Includes refinements to animal models of aging, asthma, cancer, colitis, diabetes, epilepsy, polyarthritis, etc.
The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group holds a one-day meeting every autumn to discuss current welfare research and to exchange views on rodent welfare issues. A key aim of the group is to encourage people to...
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...
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...
Cats can be successfully housed in groups when given enough space in addition to sufficient feeding, elimination, and resting areas. Cats at the University of Rochester are utilized in vision research, and have titanium cranium...
The overall benefits of an enrichment and exercise program for research canines has been well documented and is a required element, by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), of any institution’s Animal Care and...
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...
Cognitive abilities likely evolved in response to specific environmental and social challenges and are therefore expected to be specialized for the life history of each species. Specialized cognitive abilities may be most readily engaged under...
For anyone who has housed rabbits in an artificial plastic environment, what to provide as a nonfood enrichment can be an issue. Nonfood enrichment, or environmental enrichment, can be any toy, engaging sights or sounds...
Social or group housing is well known as the ideal environment for maintaining cats in a research setting as it allows specific behaviors such as play, grooming, and climbing. When social housing is not possible...
Type 2 diabetes can be a problem for captive chimpanzees. Accurate blood glucose (BG) readings are necessary to monitor and treat this disease. Thus, obtaining voluntary samples from primates through positive reinforcement training (PRT) is...