J 2023

Effects of the housing system and environmental enrichment on social dominance in laboratory male rats

NÁDENÍČEK, Jaroslav, Eva VOSLÁŘOVÁ, Veronika VOJTKOVSKÁ, Katarina NENADOVIĆ, Vladimír VEČEREK et. al.

Basic information

Original name

Effects of the housing system and environmental enrichment on social dominance in laboratory male rats

Authors

NÁDENÍČEK, Jaroslav (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Eva VOSLÁŘOVÁ (203 Czech Republic), Veronika VOJTKOVSKÁ (203 Czech Republic), Katarina NENADOVIĆ (203 Czech Republic) and Vladimír VEČEREK (203 Czech Republic)

Edition

Acta Veterinaria Brno, Brno, VETERINARNI A FARMACEUTICKA UNIVERZITA BRNO, 2023, 0001-7213

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

40301 Veterinary science

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Impact factor

Impact factor: 0.600 in 2022

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14110/23:00133823

Organization unit

Faculty of Medicine

DOI

UT WoS

001179666500009

Keywords in English

Group housing; isolation; enriched cage; rodent; behaviour; tube test

Tags

Tags

Reviewed
Změněno: 27/3/2024 10:54, Mgr. Tereza Miškechová

Abstract

V originále

In laboratory rats, dominance manifests as agonistic behaviour that damages social bonds between individuals. In this study, the effect of the housing system and environmental enrichment on the social dominance in male Wistar rats was assessed in the social dominance tube test. Rats were housed in different housing systems (individual vs. social housing, with or without enrichment) from weaning and tested at the age of 7 weeks. In each test, two rats from different housing systems were released into opposite ends of a narrow tube and the rat that forced its opponent out of the tube was declared the winner (the more dominant animal). In this way, all possible combinations of housing systems were tested and number of wins were recorded and percentage of the total number of matches was calculated. The results show that environmental enrichment suppresses (P < 0.001) dominant behaviour in individually housed rats while no such effect was seen in socially housed male rats (P = 0.532). However, social housing combined with enrichment was more effective in reduction of dominant behaviour compared to only providing enrichment for individually housed rats. Reduction of variability in the manifestations of dominant behaviour is important in animals used for experimental purposes from the perspective of greater homogeneity of animals, which ensures obtaining valid research results and at the same time better living conditions for laboratory animals.