Environmental enrichment in rodents may improve animal well-being but can affect neurologic development, immune system function, and aging. We tested the hypothesis that wood block enrichment affects the interpretation of traditional and transcriptomic endpoints in...
This work aims to verify the role of noise and music as anxiety modulators and their relationship with ovarian hormones. For this purpose, female Wistar rats were used and treated, forming different experimental groups, with...
Aggression is a naturally occurring behavior of mice that can provide benefit to those that display it in the wild. Many factors appear to influence these negative social interactions between mice, making mitigation in the...
The number of flooded cages per cage change cycle (14 days) was tracked and it was identified that leaks and flooding often times occurred shortly after cage changing. To reduce the occurrence of flooded caging...
Through behavioral and preference studies we know that mice prefer company. Laboratory mice should thus never be housed alone, if a viable option exists. Yet single housing is a fairly common practice, in particular with...
We investigated if there were any negative effects on the behaviour and physiology of rats housed in groups of five in two types of enriched cages and compared them with paired-housed rats housed in traditional...
Rats are one of the most commonly used species in research, and decades of testing have yielded a large amount of information pertaining to their experience of emotion. The aim of this review is to...
Based on standard practice, all laboratory animals should be given enrichment for physical and mental wellbeing. However, depending on the type of enrichment, it can become costly or impede with accurate health observations. We assessed...
A previous study showed that blood sampling either automatically, through a catheter, or by puncture of the tail vein is less stressful than facial vein phlebotomy in mice. We decided to investigate how facial vein...
The understanding and recognition of pain in laboratory rats and mice has advanced considerably in recent times. However, there is evidence that despite these advances, analgesics are still relatively underutilised in these species. One possible...