Browsing by Author "Swan, Melissa P."

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    Effects of Age of Pups and Removal of Existing Litter on Pup Survival during Cross-Fostering between Multiparous Outbred Mice
    (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, 2011-09) Hickman, Debra L.; Swan, Melissa P.; Laboratory Animal Resource Center, IU School of Medicine
    Periparturient manipulation of mice is a valuable tool for modern research facilities. Although fostering and Caesarian section frequently are used to eradicate pathogens, an often overlooked use is to rescue poorly breeding strains of mice. Here we characterized the weaning success rates after fostering outbred pups of variable ages (younger than 24 h; 5 to 7 d; 10 to 12 d) with full or partial replacement of litters and multiparous dams. There were no significant differences between most groups when analyzed by full or partial replacement or age of donor pups as compared with control groups, in which pups were manipulated but returned to the birth dam or the birth dam was not disturbed. However, significant differences were associated with fostering of 10- to 12-d-old pups in combination with younger pups. Overall, these findings suggest that limiting fostering to pups that are within 48 h of age and age-matching litters when fostering are unnecessary.
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    Effects of Various Commercially Available Enrichment Options on Handling and Chronic Stress Markers in Female ICR Mice
    (American Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences, 2019-03) Peveler, Jessica L.; Swan, Melissa P.; Wheeler, R'nld R.; Boehm, Christine A.; Hickman, Debra L.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Although social housing of mice generally is preferred, mice must be individually housed in some situations. In these cases, enhanced attention to environmental enrichment is encouraged, but few studies assess the wellbeing of mice provided various enrichments. In this study, we used female ICR mice to evaluate enrichment strategies that encouraged natural behaviors including foraging, exercise, sheltering, and socialization. After 3 mo of exposure to the assigned enrichment strategy, wellbeing was assessed by evaluating behavioral and physiologic differences between groups. The results suggested that the use of red-tinted igloos may decrease markers of mouse wellbeing. However, none of the selected strategies yielded measures of wellbeing indicating improvement as compared to individually housed mice with no enrichment (negative control). Furthermore, measures were not significantly different between paired mice and individually housed mice with no enrichment.