Department of Biology, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, Connecticut, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Sep 18;18(9):e0291347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291347. eCollection 2023.
Researchers are obligated to ensure food quality and provide laboratory animals with a palatable diet. Factors influencing the quality and palatability of very high-fat diet (VHFD), a widely used rodent diet, however, are understudied. We conducted experiments to establish best practices for ensuring the quality of VHFD and to improve mouse welfare. We found that VHFD in the food hopper was vulnerable first to dehydration and then oxidation within 7-days, leading to dramatic changes in food intake and food preference behavior in mice. Mitigating dehydration and oxidation of VHFD by replacing food daily, rather than weekly, stabilized feeding behavior without effect on overall cardio-metabolic health. Importantly, daily replacement of VHFD also reduced measures of anxiety-like behavior in the open field test. Refining husbandry practices to include daily replacement of VHFD can therefore ensure VHFD quality and improve animal welfare. Standardizing the practice of daily VHFD replacement may also prevent experimental confound and improve experimental reproducibility and replicability.
研究人员有责任确保食物质量，并为实验动物提供美味的饮食。然而，影响高脂肪饮食（VHFD）质量和适口性的因素还没有得到充分研究。我们进行了实验，以确定确保 VHFD 质量和改善小鼠福利的最佳实践。我们发现，食物槽中的 VHFD 在 7 天内首先容易脱水，然后容易氧化，导致小鼠的食物摄入量和食物偏好行为发生显著变化。通过每天而不是每周更换 VHFD，减轻 VHFD 的脱水和氧化，稳定了喂养行为，而对整体心血管代谢健康没有影响。重要的是，每天更换 VHFD 还减少了在旷场测试中的焦虑样行为的测量。因此，改进饲养实践，包括每天更换 VHFD，可以确保 VHFD 的质量并改善动物福利。将每天更换 VHFD 的做法标准化，也可以防止实验干扰，提高实验的可重复性和可复制性。
