Health Improvement and Cost Reduction in Animal Facilities

描述（由申请人提供）：饲养动物的成本是研究成本的重要组成部分。这些高成本是由伦理和科学考虑驱动的，因为研究人员希望他们用于研究的动物健康且无疾病。实验动物护理和使用指南（NRC，1996）中阐述的笼中可饲养小鼠数量和换笼频率的标准基于最佳专业判断，因为当时缺乏良好的实验数据。然而，自制定标准以来，情况发生了很大变化。动物设施已经取得了显著的进步，如更清洁的动物房和广泛使用的加压单独通风（PIV）笼。此外，一些研究表明，小鼠可以以指南推荐的两倍的密度饲养，对它们的健康或福祉没有不利影响，其中一些研究甚至显示这些社会动物的健康和福祉有所改善。然而，有些研究持续时间短，只测试一种性别，以有限的方式衡量健康和福祉，统计效力不足。我们建议通过开展具有足够统计能力的研究来填补关于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，并延长较长的时间，包括一项寿命研究。 公共卫生相关性（由申请人提供）：在笼子里饲养更多小鼠的能力将大大降低动物饲养的成本，这将有利于通过降低成本来研究人类疾病的动物模型。

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.