ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The environmental enrichment and behavioral research programs were expanded in 2006. An additional environmental enrichment technician position was created to support an enhanced enrichment program. Additional progress was made in expanding the use of social housing for research animals and the implementation of a variety of enrichment techniques. The proportion of the research colony that is housed socially has increased, and detailed data on socialization candidates and introduction outcomes permitted the refinement of introduction methodology. Social management decisions in breeding groups were also increasingly guided by behavioral observations. New caging systems have enhanced wellbeing through increased flexibility in social housing space, more comfortable perching, quieter mechanisms, and feeding hoppers providing a manipulative challenge for obtaining the primary diet. Hundreds of additional foraging devices have been put into use as well. Environments were enhanced with additional structures in corrals and corncribs and an increased implementation levels feeding and portable enrichment. Positive reinforcement training methods were incorporated into several research projects and husbandry procedures were modified to reduce the need for physical or chemical restraint. The Environmental Enrichment and Behavioral Research Coordinator conducts collaborative research with scientists and graduate students in the Department of Pharmacology at the Tulane University School of Medicine, the Tulane University Center for Gene Therapy, the Department of Psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University, and the Department of Animal Resources at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center.