The highly virulent Toxoplasma gondii RH strain is maintained through successive passages in mice, but there is still a lack of studies that refine these procedures from a 3Rs perspective, where humanitarian ideals aim to...
Being awake but motionless, inactive-but-awake (IBA), has been suggested to reflect low arousal negative affect in several species. This preliminary study investigated IBA in rats exposed to Chronic Unpredictable Stress (CUS), opportunistically (to comply with...
Animal play encompasses a variety of aspects, with kinematic and social aspects being particularly prevalent in mammalian play behaviour. While the developmental effects of play have been increasingly documented in recent decades, understanding the specific...
The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals recommends mice be pair or group housed and provided with nesting materials. These provisions support social interactions and are also critical for thermoregulatory behaviors such...
Many research groups explore the regulation of hibernation or compare the physiology of heterothermic mammals between the torpid and aroused, euthermic states. Current methods for monitoring torpor (for example, infrared cameras, body temperature or heart-rate...
Voluntary oral drug administration using sweet substances promotes rodents’ therapeutic compliance while reducing stress induced by forced drug administration. We aimed to test whether rats would willingly eat strawberry jam or condensed milk from a...
Rats are a commonly used animal model for the study of the pathogenesis and novel treatments of glaucoma, which is induced experimentally using invasive, painful procedures. Peribulbar anaesthesia (PBA) is frequently used in people and...
Melatonin (ML) and dexmedetomidine (DM) are used separately as anesthetic premedication or as an anesthetic in humans and laboratory animals. In this study, we aimed to investigate the anesthetic properties of both drugs combined. The...
Measures of individual behavioural differences (personality) are highly valuable in many areas of ethology, particularly studies of animal emotion and welfare. However, there are limitations to current behavioural tests of personality. Caregiver questionnaires may provide...
Immunodeficient NSG mice are reported to be less responsive to buprenorphine analgesia. Here, we used NSG mice to compare the efficacy of the commonly used dose of carprofen (5 mg/kg) with 5 and 10 times...