Health Improvement and Cost Reduction in Animal Facilities

描述（由申请人提供）：饲养动物的费用占研究费用的很大一部分。这些高昂的费用是出于伦理和科学的考虑，因为研究人员希望他们用于研究的动物是健康和无疾病的。《实验动物护理和使用指南》（NRC， 1996年）中所阐述的可饲养在笼子里的老鼠数量和换笼子频率的标准是基于最好的专业判断，因为当时缺乏良好的实验数据。然而，自标准确立以来，情况发生了很大变化。动物设施已经取得了重大进展，例如更清洁的动物室和广泛使用的加压单独通风（PIV）笼。此外，有几项研究表明，老鼠的饲养密度大约是《指南》建议的两倍，而不会对它们的健康或福祉产生不利影响，其中一些研究甚至表明，这些群居动物的健康和福祉得到了改善。然而，一些研究持续时间短，只测试了一种性别，以有限的方式衡量了健康和福祉，并且在统计上不足。我们建议通过开展具有足够统计能力的研究来填补这些关于饲养小鼠适当密度的知识空白。包括两性，使用各种各样的参数来评估健康和福祉，并延长时间，包括一项寿命研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The costs of housing animals are a significant fraction of the cost of research. These high costs are driven by both ethical and scientific considerations, as investigators want the animals they use for research to be healthy and disease-free. The standards for the number of mice that can be housed in a cage and the frequency of cage changing, articulated in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NRC, 1996), were based on the best professional judgment, because there was an absence of good experimental data at the time. However, much has changed since the standards were established. Animal facilities have incorporated significant advances such as much cleaner animal rooms and the widespread use of pressurized individually ventilated (PIV) caging. In addition, several studies have shown that mice can be housed at densities about twice that recommended by the Guide with no adverse effects on their health or well-being, and some of these studies even show an improvement in the health and well-being of these social animals. However, some studies were short in duration, tested only one sex, measured health and well-being in a limited number of ways, and were underpowered statistically. We propose to fill these gaps in knowledge about the appropriate density for housing mice by carrying out studies that will have adequate statistical power. Include both sexes, use a wide variety of parameters to assess health and well-being, and extend over longer periods of time including one lifespan study. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): The ability to house more mice in a cage would dramatically cut the costs of animal housing, and this would benefit research into animal models of human disease by cutting costs.