Laboratory Mice Facility
Laboratory Mice Facility - Related Videos
05:34
Operating and Biocontainment Procedures of a Facility for Laboratory Mice with a Natural Microbiome: Immunophenotyping Procedure
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2024
Here, we describe the structure and operating procedures, including microbial containment measures of a facility for "Wilding mice" using blood sampling for immunophenotyping as an example.
05:33
Introducing Clicker Training as a Cognitive Enrichment for Laboratory Mice
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Cited by 25 •
2017
The development of new refinement strategies for laboratory mice is a challenging task that contributes towards fulfilling the 3R principle. This protocol introduces clicker training as a cognitive enrichment program for laboratory mice.
08:03
Diagnosis of Ecto- and Endoparasites in Laboratory Rats and Mice
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Cited by 19 •
2011
This article describes various procedures for screening rats and mice to detect endo- or ectoparasitism. Several diagnostic assays will be demonstrated, both those suitable for use on live animals and those used after euthanasia of the animal. Photographs to aid in identification of rat and mouse parasites will be included.
06:12
Nest Building as an Indicator of Health and Welfare in Laboratory Mice
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Cited by 192 •
2013
We demonstrate the utility of nest building behavior in laboratory mice as an indicator of welfare. Nest scoring is a sensitive technique that is altered by temperature, illness, and aggression. The time to integrate into nest test (TINT) is a simple cage-side assessment that can detect postoperative pain.
13:48
Design and Construction of an Urban Runoff Research Facility
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Cited by 6 •
2014
This paper describes the design, construction, and function of a 1,000 m2 facility containing 24 individual 33.6 m2 field plots equipped for measuring total runoff volumes with time and collection of runoff subsamples at selected intervals for quantification of chemical constituents in the runoff water from simulated home lawns.
FAQs
These conditions can alter environmental and microbial variables that affect immune function and infection outcomes. Consistent control helps investigators reduce unwanted variation between animals or study periods, making observed differences more likely to reflect the experimental intervention rather than housing conditions. This is particularly important when evaluating host responses, disease progression, vaccines, or therapeutics.
Standardized care improves reproducibility by limiting facility-related differences that could otherwise influence experimental results. When housing conditions, nutrition, sanitation, and animal health monitoring remain consistent, researchers can better distinguish biological effects from environmental variation. This strengthens comparisons across study groups and supports more reliable interpretation of immune responses and infection-related findings.
Quarantine and health monitoring help control the microbial and health variables that may affect research animals. By assessing animal health and managing their entry into the research setting, the facility supports more consistent experimental conditions. This control is essential for studies in which unexpected health differences could change immune function, pathogen-related outcomes, or treatment responses.
Nutrition and lighting are part of the controlled care environment and can contribute to variation in animal biology. Maintaining them consistently helps reduce differences unrelated to the research question. In immunology and infection studies, controlling these variables supports clearer comparisons of host responses, disease progression, and the effects of vaccines or therapeutics.
Management combines regulated housing conditions with sanitation, nutrition, quarantine, health monitoring, and documentation of animal health. Together, these practices create a consistent basis for conducting experiments and tracking possible sources of variation. Applying them systematically helps investigators interpret infection-related results while supporting animal welfare and responsible research.
Such facilities support carefully designed studies of host responses, pathogen transmission, disease progression, vaccines, and therapeutics. Their controlled conditions are useful whenever researchers need to compare biological outcomes while limiting environmental and microbial variation. The resulting consistency helps connect observed changes to the infection process or intervention being investigated.
Controlled housing can support interpretation of immune responses, pathogen transmission patterns, disease progression, and responses to vaccines or therapeutics. It does not replace experimental design, but it reduces facility-related variation that might obscure these outcomes. Documented animal health and consistent care give researchers a stronger basis for deciding whether findings reflect biology or environmental differences.