Varholick Justin A, Godinez Gizelle, Jenkins Ashley, Mobin Sarim, Maden Malcolm
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Dec 23;14(1):64. doi: 10.3390/ani14010064.
Bite wounds due to aggression in male laboratory mice () are a major welfare concern, often leading to attrition, chronic activation of the innate immune system, and significant impacts on the experimental results derived from the use of these animals as models. Bite wounding within the home-cage of spiny mice ()-a valuable research model for wound healing and menstruation-is poorly characterized. While we have anecdotally observed frequent bite wounding in , the frequency of aggression within the home-cage, the severity of the bite wounds, and the types of dominance structures remain unstudied. Here, we report that 46% of cages in our colony had at least one bite wound over the course of a year and that same-sex pairs fought in the home-cage 10% of the time during their dark/active phase. Both sexes inflicted wounds and frequently engaged in agonistic behaviors, even with stable dominance structures. We found that females inflicted less severe bite wounds in same-sex housing. Also, aged females in same-sex pairs were never observed fighting, and no bite wounds were observed in aged . These results suggest that we should consider whether bite wounding negatively impacts our experimental results since physical trauma is known to alter menstrual cycling and healing.
雄性实验小鼠因攻击行为导致的咬伤是一个重大的动物福利问题，常常导致损耗、先天免疫系统的慢性激活，并对将这些动物用作模型所获得的实验结果产生重大影响。多刺小鼠（一种用于伤口愈合和月经研究的有价值的研究模型）在笼内的咬伤情况鲜有描述。虽然我们曾偶然观察到多刺小鼠频繁出现咬伤情况，但笼内攻击行为的频率、咬伤的严重程度以及优势结构的类型仍未得到研究。在此，我们报告称，在我们的鼠群中，46%的笼子在一年时间里至少出现过一处咬伤，并且同性配对在其黑暗/活跃期有10%的时间在笼内打斗。两性都会造成伤口，并且经常发生争斗行为，即使存在稳定的优势结构。我们发现，雌性在同性饲养环境中造成的咬伤不太严重。此外，从未观察到同性配对中的老年雌性打斗，并且在老年多刺小鼠中也未观察到咬伤情况。这些结果表明，我们应该考虑咬伤是否会对我们的实验结果产生负面影响，因为已知身体创伤会改变月经周期和伤口愈合情况。
