Animal Welfare and Behaviour Research Group, Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Lab Anim (NY). 2023 Mar;52(3):63-74. doi: 10.1038/s41684-023-01124-1. Epub 2023 Feb 9.
Refining the housing and husbandry of laboratory rats is an important goal, both for ethical reasons and to allow better quality research. We conducted a mapping review of 1,017 studies investigating potential refinements of housing and husbandry of the laboratory rat to assess what refinements have, and have not, been studied, and to briefly assess whether there is evidence to support any impact on rat welfare. Among the many refinements studied, the majority involve changes to the cage, but some also involve alterations to the wider environment. The effects of these refinements were assessed using a range of readouts, many of which are difficult to interpret from a welfare perspective. Preference studies, which are easier to interpret, provide evidence that rats prefer complex environments, including shelters and multiple objects, which offer different areas/resources allowing the rat to engage in diverse behaviors. The reporting of methodology in papers was often poor, indicating that studies were potentially subject to biases. Given that many refinements co-occurred, it was often difficult to tease apart which ones were most beneficial for rat welfare. Effects of refinements were also moderated by a number of factors including age, sex, strain and photoperiod. Altogether our findings show that a one-size-fits-all approach to refinements is not appropriate, because different refinements will impact different rats in different ways. Our review has also produced a database of >1,000 articles that can be used for further and more detailed analyses. Our findings have also highlighted areas where future research is likely to be valuable, including refinements to rat transport, handling and the use of training.
优化实验大鼠的饲养环境和管理是十分重要的，这不仅出于伦理原因，还有助于开展更高质量的研究。我们对 1017 项研究进行了综合分析，旨在评估哪些饲养环境和管理的改进措施得到了研究，哪些没有，并简要评估是否有证据支持这些改进措施对大鼠福利的影响。在众多研究的改进措施中，大多数涉及到笼具的改变，但也有一些涉及到更广泛环境的改变。这些改进措施的效果是通过一系列指标来评估的，其中许多指标从福利角度来看难以解读。偏好研究提供了证据，表明大鼠更喜欢复杂的环境，包括遮蔽物和多个物体，因为这些环境提供了不同的区域/资源，使大鼠能够进行多样化的行为。然而，论文中对方法的报告往往很差，这表明这些研究可能存在偏差。由于许多改进措施同时发生，因此很难区分哪些措施对大鼠福利最有益。改进措施的效果还受到许多因素的调节，包括年龄、性别、品系和光周期。总之，我们的研究结果表明，一刀切的改进措施并不合适，因为不同的改进措施会以不同的方式影响不同的大鼠。我们的综述还产生了一个超过 1000 篇文章的数据库，可用于进一步和更详细的分析。我们的研究结果还突出了未来研究可能有价值的领域，包括改进大鼠运输、处理和训练的措施。
