Rodents
Laboratory mice and rats are derived from a largely nocturnal and climbing ancestor and as such they retain many of the traits of their wild counterparts – exploratory activity, searching for food and climbing. They also like to compartmentalise their behaviours and often use urine marking and bedding to assist.
The Code of Practice for Housing and Care of Laboratory Mice, Rats, Guinea Pigs and Rabbits states:
“Animals must be able to perform a variety of natural activities consistent with species specific behaviour, including the opportunity for sufficient exercise within their enclosure”.
It also states: “The provision of environmental enrichment for mice and rats should mimic natural habitat and behavioural requirements including in particular tunnelling, foraging, climbing, social groupings and nesting.”
The current minimum standards, where these animals are kept in small containers, cannot accommodate the innate behavioural needs of a naturally foraging animal, nor allow for sufficient environmental enrichment.
For more information, download our fact sheet:
Bulletin 9 - Rats and Mice - Maligned & Misunderstood
HRA Case Studies
- Mice forced to inhale cigarette smoke to study chemical inflammation of intestines : Chronic cigarette smoke exposure induces systemic hypoxia that drives intestinal dysfunction (20..
- Mice held in tubes and forced to inhale cigarette smoke – Australia’s outdated research : Hsu, A C-Y., Starkey, M.R., Hanish, I., Parsons, K., Haw, T.J., Howland, LJ, Barr, I., Maho..
- Mice fed high fat diets, forced to fast, and then killed to study diabetes in humans - but results differ from human studies : Lamont, Waters & Andrikopoulos 2016, 'A low-carbohydrate high-fat diet increases weight gai..
- Rats subjected to limited nesting stressor and then killed by decapitation : Maniam J, Antoniadis CP, Youngson NA, Sinha JK, Morris MJ 2016, 'Sugar Consumption Produces Eff..
- Mice forced to inhale drugs and then killed for experiment on tuberculosis : Chan, J.G.Y., Tyne, A.S., Pang, A., McLachlan, A.J., Perera, V., Chan, J.C.Y., Britton, W.J., Chan, ..
- Mice fed a high fat diet and exposed to cigarette smoke : The Lung Inflammation and Skeletal Muscle Wasting Induced by Subchronic Cigarette Smoke Exposure..
- Feeding alcohol to mice, then inducing depression : Depression-related behaviours displayed by female C57BL/6J mice during abstinence from chronic e..
- Too much coffee makes mice fat : “Supplementation of a High-Fat Diet with Chlorogenic Acid Is Associated with Insulin Resis..
- Precious resources wasted feeding lamingtons and meat pies to laboratory rats : Altered Feeding Patterns in Rats Exposed to a Palatable Cafeteria Diet: Increased Snacking and i..
- Traumatic Brain Injury to rats by dropping a 450g weight onto their exposed brains : Vivisectors at Monash University have been attempting to study the long term consequence of Trau..
- Feeding junk food to rats : Maternal “junk-food” feeding of rat dams alters food choices and development of the ..
- Inflicting Sciatic Pain in Rats : “A novel animal model of graded neuropathic pain: Utility to investigate mechanisms of pop..
- Cannabis Increasing Ultrasonic Vocalisations and Cat Odour Avoidance in Rats : The University of Sydney have been using government funding to determine the different behaviour..
- Forcing Rats to Consume Ecstasy and Speed at the University Of Sydney - Psychopharmacology Research at its Worst : In an attempt to recreate the effects of the party drugs methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA (ec..
- Mice Used in Taxpayer-Funded Fertility Experiments at the University of Adelaide : In a taxpayer-funded study, researchers at the School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health at ..
