The Three RsDo enriched cages compromise scientific results?Scientists have defended the use of barren cages for rodents on the basis that enrichments would compromise the reproducibility of test results. New results published in Nature show this to be false. Three teams in Switzerland and Germany led by David Wolfer analysed the behaviour of mice reared in enriched cages compared to those in standard barren cages. They chose four tests which are frequently used in pharmacology and neurology to monitor the health of mice under treatment. Of those mice reared in cages with substantial enrichments, they found that, in 19 out of 20 indicators, there was no difference in the standardisation of the results compared to those in barren cages. ["Cage enrichment and mouse behaviour", David P. Wolfer et al., Nature, vol 432, pp821-2] Indeed, it may be argued that barren cages themselves signifcantly compromise test results in leading to increased boredom and stress-related behaviour. In 2002 it was discovered that mice that were genetically modified for research into Huntington's disease performed far better in enriched cages than those reared in barren ones [more...]. It seems hard, anyway, to justify the reliability of experiments on mice in barren cages as models of humans. After all, humans are not reared in barren cages. |