Further reducing
mouse anxiety using
familiar tunnels.
Building on the finding that handling laboratory mice using a tunnel resulted in lower anxiety than picking them up by the tail, Gouveia and Hurst (2013) next investigated whether familiarity with the tunnel might be an important factor. Once again they found that tunnel handling resulted in lower anxiety than tail handling during an elevated plus maze (a common behavioural test for laboratory mice).
This time they found differences between mouse strains, with C57BL/6 mice being most interactive towards tunnels from their home cage and ICR mice showing no difference in interaction between familiar home cage tunnels and novel tunnels previously used for handling mice from other cages. The researchers suggest that ‘as home cage tunnels can further improve response to handling in some mice, we recommend that mice are handled with a tunnel provided in their home cage where possible as a simple, practical method to minimise handling stress’. The tunnel would also act as a form of environmental enrichment for the home cage.
In science it’s rare to tell a complete story through the findings of two research papers, click here for the next chapter of this tale/tail!
Original research: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066401