A recent interesting NC3R report entitled “Minimising aggression in group-housed male mice” underlined what a great problem aggression is in male mice and which strains are the most aggressive but especially what can be done to reduce the likelihood of aggression occurring.
This was the first study of its kind to apply a crowdsourcing approach to an animal welfare problem. The authors involved 143 animal technicians at 44 facilities and collected data on aggression-related injuries over a one-month period from a total population of 137,580 mice.
By comparing prevalence of aggression and housing and husbandry variables between facilities, other key factors that influence levels of aggression were identified, including cage cleaning protocols.
A consequent recommendation to reduce this important problem could be the adoption of specific technologies which can support the analysis of a “dirty” cage and postpone the cage change.
The link to the report is:
https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/news/minimising-aggression-group-housed-male-mice
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