Afhandlinger og specialer

Method developments and assessments of animal welfare in IVC-systems      Pdf-version (download)

Krohn, T.C.
Ph.D.-thesis, 2002
Abstract:
Today the use of individually ventilated cage systems (IVC-systems) is common, especially for housing transgenic rodents. Typically each cage is ventilated with 40 to 50 air changes per hour, but some have up to 120 air changes. To ensure such air change, the air is blown into the cage at a relatively high speed. However, at the animal’s level most systems ventilate with an air speed of approximately 0.2 m/s.
In the present study it has been necessary to develop new methods and improve already established methods for welfare measurements to be able to reveal changes in the welfare when the animals are placed under different ventilation regimes. Five methods were evaluated, but only two were found sensitive enough to reveal impacts from the housing conditions. The two methods were telemetry with use of the parameters, heart rate and systolic blood pressure, and the preference test modified in a new set-up with the use of digital weights for registration of presence or absence in the cages.
For evaluating the impact from the ventilation parameters three studies were conducted, one analysing whether an air speed below 0.2 m/s or just above 0.5 m/s affects the rats, a second analysing whether air changes of 50, 80 and 120 times per hour affect the rats, and a third analysing the impact of 1%, 3%, and 5% CO2 on the animals' physiology and behaviour.
In all studies monitoring of preferences as well as physiological parameters, such as heart rate and blood pressure, were used to show the ability of the animals to register the different parameters and to avoid them if possible.
Air speeds inside the cage as high as 0.5 m/s could not be shown to affect the rats, while the number of air changes in each cage should be kept below 80 times per hour in order not to affect the rats’ physiology and behaviour. Also the CO2 had an effect on the animals, as they avoid CO2 levels at 3% as it has an anaesthetic effect on the animals, seen as a decline in the heart rate.

 

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