Effects of Housing Density on Reproductive Performance, Intracage Ammonia, and Welfare of Mice Continuously Housed as Breeders in Standard Mouse and Rat Caging

Maintaining compliance with cage density recommendations in The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals precludes continuous trio breeding in standard-sized mouse cages. This study evaluated and compared several parameters of reproductive performance, intracage ammonia concentration, and fecal corticosterone levels in 2 strains of mice, C57BL/6J (B6) and B6.129S(Cg)-Stat1tm1Dlv/J (STAT1-/-), housed as continuous breeding pairs or trios in standard-sized mouse cages, and continuous breeding trios in standard-sized rat cages. Reproductive performance data indicated that STAT1-/- trios raised in rat cages weaned significantly more pups per litter than did STAT1-/- trios raised in mouse cages, and B6 mice had higher pup survival rates at weaning than did STAT1-/- mice in mouse cages housing continuous breeding trios. In addition, the Production Index was significantly higher for B6 breeding trios in rat cages than for B6 trios in mouse cages. Intracage ammonia concentration increased with cage density, with significantly higher ammonia concentrations in mouse cages housing trios compared with rat cages housing trios. However, fecal corticosterone levels did not differ significantly regardless of genotype, breeding configuration, or cage size, and daily health checks revealed no clinical abnormalities under any of the conditions evaluated. These results suggest that, although continuous trio breeding in standard-sized mouse cages does not seem to compromise mouse welfare, it offers no advantage in reproductive performance compared with pair breeding, and in some cases, it might be disadvantageous in this regard. Further, high intracage ammonia in mouse cages containing breeding trios might necessitate more frequent cage changes.

Effect of Continuous Trio Breeding Compared with Continuous Pair Breeding in 'Shoebox' Caging on Measures of Reproductive Performance in Estrogen Receptor Knockout Mice

Some performance standards for continuous trio breeding in 'shoebox' cages for inbred stocks and outbred strains of mice challenge the minimum floor space recommendations in the 8th edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. In our study, we evaluated whether continuous trio breeding could be successfully applied to a breeding colony of genetically engineered mice housed in shoebox cages with a floor area of 67.6 in2. Mice heterozygous for genetically engineered mutations to estrogen receptors and their wildtype counterparts were continuously bred as trios or pairs. Confounding environmental factors were controlled through standardized husbandry practices and husbandry, and all mice were bred simultaneously to control for temporal factors. Several measures of reproductive performance-including number of litters per female, production index, interlitter interval, litter size at birth, litter size at weaning, weaning rate, and body weight of pups at weaning- were evaluated over approximately 6 mo. Regardless of genotype, interlitter interval, litter size at birth, and litter size at weaning were significantly lower for trio-bred mice than for pair-bred mice. In addition, significant interactions emerged between genotype and breeding strategy for these reproductive measures. Furthermore, significant differences between genotypes occurred for interlitter interval and weaning rate, regardless of breeding strategy. Underlying mechanisms to account for effects of genotype on interlitter interval and the interaction of genotype with breeding strategy were unclear but may reflect effects of overcrowding and reproductive suppression.