Stanford University, Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Purdue University, Animal Science Department, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
Lab Anim (NY). 2017 Mar 22;46(4):157-161. doi: 10.1038/laban.1219.
Group housing is highly important for social animals. However, it can also give rise to aggression, one of the most serious welfare concerns in laboratory mouse husbandry. Severe fighting can lead to pain, injury and even death. In addition, working with animals that are severely socially stressed, wounded or singly-housed as a result of aggression may compromise scientific validity. Some general recommendations on how to minimize aggression exist, but the problem persists. Thus far, studies attempting to find solutions have mainly focused on social dominance and territorial behavior, but many other aspects of routine housing and husbandry that might influence aggressive behavior have been overlooked. The present way of housing laboratory mice is highly unnatural: mice are prevented from performing many species-typical behaviors and are routinely subjected to painful and aversive stimuli. Giving animals control over their environment is an important aspect of improving animal welfare and has been well-studied in the field of animal welfare science. How control over the environment influences aggression in laboratory mice, however, has not been closely examined. In this article, we challenge current ways of thinking and propose alternative perspectives that we hope will lead to an enhanced understanding of aggression in laboratory mice.
群居对社会性动物非常重要。然而，它也可能引发攻击性，这是实验室小鼠饲养中最严重的福利问题之一。严重的打斗会导致疼痛、受伤甚至死亡。此外，与因攻击性而严重社交压力、受伤或独居的动物一起工作可能会影响科学的有效性。关于如何最大限度地减少攻击性，已经有一些一般性的建议，但问题仍然存在。迄今为止，试图寻找解决方案的研究主要集中在社会统治和领地行为上，但许多其他可能影响攻击性的日常饲养和管理方面被忽视了。目前饲养实验室小鼠的方式极不自然：小鼠被阻止表现出许多种典型的行为，并且经常受到痛苦和厌恶的刺激。让动物控制自己的环境是改善动物福利的一个重要方面，在动物福利科学领域已经得到了很好的研究。然而，环境控制如何影响实验室小鼠的攻击性，还没有被密切研究。在本文中，我们挑战当前的思维方式，并提出替代观点，我们希望这将有助于更好地理解实验室小鼠的攻击性。
