Guinea-pigs: A Contribution to the Refinement of Animal Experiments
Wolfgang Scharmann
Bundesgesundheitsamt, Zentrale Versuchstierzucht, Diedersdorfer Weg l, D-1000 Berlin 48,
Germany
Summary - The keeping of experimental animals requires housing systems appropriate to
the needs and behaviour of each species, as demanded by various supranational and national guidelines. It is questionable whether conventional housing systems for rodents such as mice, rats and guinea-pigs meet this demand. It is suggested that the housing of laboratory rodents should be improved by the use of larger and more appropriate cage types, as well as by reducing the monotony of conventional housing systems.
Key words: housing of rodents, well-being, environmental enrichment.
Introduction attention paid to how these requirements can
be met. Among the numerous provisions of Housing, either for the purposes of breeding the guidelines, there are detailed descriptions or maintaining animals as stock or during an of the physical and chemical environments of experiment, has a major effect on the life of animal rooms, hygiene, health and the laboratory animal. Thus, improvements transportation of animals, but there are no in housing corresponding to species-specific recommendations on how to create an requirements can be considered to be an environment which would enable the animal important step toward refinement (1), if this to express its species-specific behavioural term is understood to be the sum of all patterns. Furthermore, the various measures carried out in order to improve guidelines specify the minimum space to be conditions for laboratory animals. allocated to each animal species, but these Following an amendment to the US Animal specifications are arbitrary, since the Welfare Act (2), which demands that non- recommended cage standards in different human primates must be housed in a manner national guidelines vary considerably. This is conducive to their "psychological well-being", not surprising, since the recommendations there have been a considerable number of are based more on current practice and attempts to design appropriate professional opinions than on objective environmental enrichment techniques, not ethological research. It seems obvious that an only for the housing of non-human primates, important determining factor for the selection but also for dogs and cats (3-5). However, of cage size was the minimum space required little effort has been focused on the for housing animals without causing environmental enrichment of cages for detectable injuries. As a result, economic rodents, which also possess a highly- interests, hygiene concerns and convenience developed sensory system. Although in handling have had priority over ethical supranational (6, 7) and national (8-11) considerations. But it is also debatable guidelines for the housing and care of whether these standards are in agreement laboratory animals refer to the "ethological with scientific interests, because there is no needs" (6) or "behavioural needs" (10) of the information on whether, or how, this present animals, there has been scarcely any form of confinement Can comnromise the