Laboratory mouse housing conditions can be improved using common environmental enrichment without compromising data.

ABSTRACT: Animal welfare requires the adequate housing of animals to ensure health and well-being. The application of environmental enrichment is a way to improve the well-being of laboratory animals. However, it is important to know whether these enrichment items can be incorporated in experimental mouse husbandry without creating a divide between past and future experimental results. Previous small-scale studies have been inconsistent throughout the literature, and it is not yet completely understood whether and how enrichment might endanger comparability of results of scientific experiments. Here, we measured the effect on means and variability of 164 physiological parameters in 3 conditions: with nesting material with or without a shelter, comparing these 2 conditions to a "barren" regime withou

SUBMITTER: Andre V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5922977 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature