Environmental Enrichment Trial ANU Bioscience

1. Environmental Enrichment Trial ANU Bioscience Simon Bain Director, Office of Research Integrity, ANU

2. AEEC Position • January 2008 meeting unanimously moved that all ANU experimental animals would be provided with a degree of environmental enrichment within 2-3 years. • Ie by December 31 2010

3. Definitions of Environmental Enrichment Environmental enrichment is the provision of stimuli which promote the expression of species appropriate behavioural and mental activities Patterson-Kane (2003): An increase in the complexity or naturalness of an enclosure with the goal of improving animal welfare

4. Why the Need for Environmental Enrichment (Neuroscience) • Scientific publications indicate that mice in non-enriched cages have impaired brain development, stereotypies, and an anxious behavioural profile. • Are these appropriate subjects for neuroscience investigation

6. Environmental Enrichment

7. Tissue and cereal boxes, egg cartons, or any other box that can be autoclaved Half tunnel

8. Mouse huts, igloos, cubes, and tunnels

9. Rodent chew products Chew blocks • Rodent gnaw bone

10. Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (7th Ed) • 4.4.19 Animal accommodation should be designed and managed to meet species specific needs

11. Concept of “Biological Relevance” • That only biologically relevant enrichments (those that allow animals to control stressors in there environment) will benefit wellbeing and allow full expression of species specific behaviour

12. Preference Testing • Mice show strong preferences for cages that provide nesting material and nest building plays a central role in the natural history of wild mice

13. Thermoregulatory Stability • Monitored by radiotelometry it has been established that the thermoneutral zone for mice ranges between 26c and 34 c • Rome Conference Oct 2009. Joe Garner from Purdue demonstrated how nests of appropriate materials provide a thermal compensating mechanism to achieve ambient temperatures that approach thermoneutrality

14. Empty toilet rolls are cheap, can be autoclaved, mice can hide in them, and chew them.

15. Nesting MaterialShredded paper, tissues, or commercial varieties.

16. Purdue Study (2008) Home Improvement: C57Bl/6J Mice Given More Naturalistic Nesting Materials Build Better Nests Hess et al. Am Assoc Lab An Sc (2008) Vol 47 No 6 25-31 • Looked at a variety of nesting materials to ascertain which nesting material best paralleled natural nest building. Trialled shredded paper strips, facial tissue, and compressed cotton squares. Shredded paper produced high quality nests similar to wild counterparts

17. Shepherds Cob Plus • Contain Alpha Twists which are minirolls of multi-layered virgin paper cut into short lengths • Capability to provide enrichment which we normally provide to breeding mice in a different form, in a manner that has high biological relevance.