The Importance of Reporting Housing and Husbandry in Rat Research

Eric M Prager,Hadley C Bergstrom,Luke R Johnson,Neil E Grunberg

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00038

Abstract

In 1963, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) first issued guidelines for animal housing and husbandry. The most recent 2010 revision emphasizes animal care “in ways judged to be scientifically, technically, and humanely appropriate” (National Institutes of Health, 2010, p. XIII). The goal of these guidelines is to ensure humanitarian treatment of animals and to optimize the quality of research. Although these animal care guidelines cover a substantial amount of information regarding animal housing and husbandry, researchers generally do not report all these variables (see Table Table1).1). The importance of housing and husbandry conditions with respect to standardization across different research laboratories has been debated previously (Crabbe et al., 1999; Van Der Staay and Steckler, 2002; Wahlsten et al., 2003; Wolfer et al., 2004; Van Der Staay, 2006; Richter et al., 2010, 2011). This paper focuses on several animal husbandry and housing issues that are particularly relevant to stress responses in rats, including transportation, handling, cage changing, housing conditions, light levels and the light–dark cycle. We argue that these key animal housing and husbandry variables should be reported in greater detail in an effort to raise awareness about extraneous experimental variables, especially those that have the potential to interact with the stress response.

Highlights

Rats used in scientific research are usually transported from a breeder to an institution’s animal housing facility prior to experimentation
National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines on animal care do not provide standards on the duration of time to allow for acclimation to the new colony prior to experimentation, even though transportation can be stressful (Van Ruiven et al, 1998; Capdevila et al, 2007)
Evidence to the contrary indicates that handling induces a rapid and significant elevation of physiological stress responses in rats that may persist for 30–60 min or longer (Black et al, 1964; Sharp et al, 2002a,b, 2003; Balcombe et al, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

Rats used in scientific research are usually transported from a breeder to an institution’s animal housing facility prior to experimentation. NIH guidelines on animal care do not provide standards on the duration of time to allow for acclimation to the new colony prior to experimentation, even though transportation can be stressful (Van Ruiven et al, 1998; Capdevila et al, 2007).

Results

Conclusion