Laboratory mice are typically housed in “shoebox” cages with limited opportunities to engage in natural behaviour. Temporary access to environments with increased space and complexity (playpens) may improve mouse welfare. Previous work by our group...
Stereotypies are repetitive, unvarying, apparently purposeless behavioural patterns. They develop in animals kept in barren environments and are highly prevalent in laboratory mice (Mus musculus), yet their underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. In humans, stereotypies...
Transportation of laboratory rodents unavoidably causes stress. Nevertheless, very little is known about the effects of transportation and how long it takes for the animal to recuperate. In the present study, we investigated physiological and...
Human interaction and physical environmental factors are part of the stimuli presented to laboratory animals everyday, influencing their behaviour and physiology and contributing to their welfare. Certain environmental conditions and routine procedures in the animal...
Report of the Transport Working Group established by the Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA)
Emotions can bias human decisions- for example depressed or anxious people tend to make pessimistic judgements while those in positive affective states are often more optimistic. Several studies have reported that affect contingent judgement biases...
Laboratory animal personnel may experience significant stress from working with animals in scientific research. Workplace stress can be assessed by evaluating professional quality of life, which is comprised of compassion fatigue (i.e., burnout and secondary...
Heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) play an important role in the study of complex behaviors and their physiological correlations in non-human primates (NHPs). However, collecting HR and RR information is often challenging, involving...
Cognitive enrichment is becoming more prevalent in professional marine mammal facilities. Research with dolphins has suggested that such enrichment provides more welfare benefits than enrichment that does not incorporate cognitive challenge. However, there is little...