TY - JOUR
T1 - Laboratory mouse housing conditions can be improved using common environmental enrichment without compromising data
AU - André, Viola
AU - Gau, Christine
AU - Scheideler, Angelika
AU - Aguilar-Pimentel, Juan A.
AU - Amarie, Oana V.
AU - Becker, Lore
AU - Garrett, Lillian
AU - Hans, Wolfgang
AU - Hölter, Sabine M.
AU - Janik, Dirk
AU - Moreth, Kristin
AU - Neff, Frauke
AU - Östereicher, Manuela
AU - Racz, Ildiko
AU - Rathkolb, Birgit
AU - Rozman, Jan
AU - Bekeredjian, Raffi
AU - Graw, Jochen
AU - Klingenspor, Martin
AU - Klopstock, Thomas
AU - Ollert, Markus
AU - Schmidt-Weber, Carsten
AU - Wolf, Eckhard
AU - Wurst, Wolfgang
AU - Gailus-Durner, Valérie
AU - Brielmeier, Markus
AU - Fuchs, Helmut
AU - Hrabé de Angelis, Martin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 André et al.
PY - 2018/4/16
Y1 - 2018/4/16
N2 - 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 without any enrichments. We studied a total of 360 mice from each of 2 mouse strains (C57BL/6NTac and DBA/2NCrl) and both sexes for each of the 3 conditions. Our study indicates that enrichment affects the mean values of some of the 164 parameters with no consistent effects on variability. However, the influence of enrichment appears negligible compared to the effects of other influencing factors. Therefore, nesting material and shelters may be used to improve animal welfare without impairment of experimental outcome or loss of comparability to previous data collected under barren housing conditions.
AB - 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 without any enrichments. We studied a total of 360 mice from each of 2 mouse strains (C57BL/6NTac and DBA/2NCrl) and both sexes for each of the 3 conditions. Our study indicates that enrichment affects the mean values of some of the 164 parameters with no consistent effects on variability. However, the influence of enrichment appears negligible compared to the effects of other influencing factors. Therefore, nesting material and shelters may be used to improve animal welfare without impairment of experimental outcome or loss of comparability to previous data collected under barren housing conditions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046428535&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29659570
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005019
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005019
M3 - Article
C2 - 29659570
AN - SCOPUS:85046428535
SN - 1544-9173
VL - 16
JO - PLoS Biology
JF - PLoS Biology
IS - 4
M1 - e2005019
ER -