Permanent confinement inevitably carries the risk of distress. Being forcibly restrained during potentially life threatening, painful and uncomfortable procedures also intrinsically carries the risk of stress. Both circumstances have traditionally been given too little or no attention in the husbandry practices of rodents and rabbits used in biomedical research. This is surprising, because distress and stress jeopardize not only the welfare of the research subject but also the validity of the scientific data.

A respected researcher conceded in the prestigious journal Laboratory Animal Science:

"Most investigators think only briefly about the care and handling of their animals and clearly have not made it an important consideration in their work" (Traystman, 1987, p 108).

This attitude is not conducive to changing the traditional husbandry practices of rodents and rabbits. Many animal caregivers and technicians are increasingly frustrated with the status quo and are looking for ways to make life easier for the animals in their charge.

This book offers some guidance. It summarizes and discusses refinement and environmental improvement techniques for rodents and rabbits kept in research facilities. The review of the literature focuses on data-supported published material and mentions descriptive and theoretical articles only if they have practical relevance. It does not include research pertaining to the handling of young animals (gentling) and its effect on their emotional development.

A total of 260 relevant articles published in 85 different journals have been reviewed. The species studied were:

rats 100 (38 percent) articles,
mice 87 (33 percent) articles,
rabbits 35 (14 percent) articles,
guinea pigs 15 ( 6 percent) articles,
hamsters 15 ( 6 percent) articles,
gerbils 7 ( 3 percent) articles,
bank voles 1 (<1 percent) article.

Of the 260 articles:

137 (53 percent) were published in European journals,
120 (46 percent) were published in US journals, and
3 (1 percent) were published in journals of other countries.

The majority of articles were published in the following journals:

Laboratory Animals, 31 articles;
Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science, 19 articles;
Animal Technology (and Welfare), 15 articles;
Animal Behaviour, 14 articles;
Physiology and Behavior, 13 articles;
Animal Welfare, 13 articles;
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 13 articles;
Behaviour, 10 articles.

In order to make the text more succinct, some methodological details have been deliberately omitted. The age category and sex of the subjects tested, the number of test subjects, and the dimension of the primary enclosure are included in this review only if the author of a publication refers to this information in the discussion of the research findings and/or if this information is important to the interpretation of the data.

We are very grateful to the following animal technicians, scientists, veterinarians and editors who took the time to read a draft of this book and offered valuable comments which made it an enjoyable experience to shape the final version:

Anita Conte, College of Staten Island/CUNY, USA;
Barbara Weilenmann, Basel, Switzerland;
Barney Reed, RSPCA, UK;
Ben Mathiesen, Antony, France;
Elva Mathiesen, Providence, USA;
Emily Patterson-Kane, Purdue University, USA;
Erik Moreau, Charles River Laboratories, Montreal, Canada;
Judith Schrier, Providence, USA;
Laura A. Gwinn, Cephalon, Inc., West Chester, USA;
Lynette Chave, NSW Dept. of Primary Industries, Beecroft, Australia;
Michele Cunneen, The AWEN Group, Waltham, USA;
Natasha Down, York University, Toronto, Canada;
Octavio Presgrave, INCQS/FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Richard Weilenmann, Hoffmann - La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland.

 

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