2008 Professor Joseph Garner
In honour of Professor Bill Russell, who died in 2007, UFAW ran a competition the following year for a post-doctoral Fellowship in his name. The winner was Professor Joseph Garner for his research at Purdue University in the USA to explore thermal preferences and the importance of nesting material for the thermal comfort of laboratory mice.
Professor Garner and his student Brianna Gaskill’s research proved to be very valuable and important for the welfare of laboratory mice. Summarising the work, Jo says: ‘The bottom line is that we established data-driven standards for mouse nesting enrichment, and showed a range of benefits to mouse behavior, physiology, breeding, performance (and profitability), and welfare, that make an iron-clad case for both the necessity, and the benefits of providing nesting enrichment to mice’.
While in some parts of the world nesting material is routinely provided, in others it is not. This research will greatly encourage its use benefiting millions of mice housed in research institutions around the world. Some of the publications that came out of the work are listed below:
Gaskill BN, Gordon CJ, Pajor EA, Lucas JR, Davis JK, and Garner JP 2012 Heat or Insulation: Behavioral titration of mouse preference for warmth or access to a nest. PLoS One 7: e32799.
Gaskill BN, Gordon CJ, Pajor EA, Lucas JR, Davis JK, and Garner JP 2013 Impact of nesting material on mouse body temperature and physiology. Physiology & Behavior 110 – 111: 87-95.
Gaskill BN, Pritchett-Corning KR, Gordon CJ, Pajor EA, Lucas JR, Davis JK, and Garner JP 2013 Energy Reallocation to Breeding Performance through Improved Nest Building in Laboratory Mice. PLoS One 8: e74153.
Gaskill BN, Rohr SA, Pajor EA, Lucas JR, and Garner JP 2009 Some like it hot: Mouse temperature preferences in laboratory housing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 116: 279-285.
Gaskill BN, Rohr SA, Pajor EA, Lucas JR, and Garner JP 2011 Working with what you’ve got: Changes in thermal preference and behavior in mice with or without nesting material. Journal of Thermal Biology 36: 193-199.
Gaskill BN, Winnicker C, Garner JP, and Pritchett-Corning KR 2013 The naked truth: Breeding performance in nude mice with and without nesting material. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 143: 110-116.
A report from Dr Brianna Gaskill
Before beginning my PhD research at Purdue University on thermal stress in laboratory mice, I had already begun researching this subject in 2005, under the guidance of Dr Joe Garner, through the Purdue masters‐by‐pass program . One of the four publications resulting from this work was utilized by the US Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (2010) for making ambient temperature recommendations. However, it had become apparent that although mice prefer warmer environments, changing laboratory temperatures was not a solution due to increased aggressive interactions and because temperature preference differs between sexes and behavior. This is why we were so pleased to be awarded, in 2008, the inaugural UFAW Professor William Russell Memorial Fellowship to investigate the use of appropriate nesting materials to alleviate thermal stress in mice.
Our research aimed to validate the benefits of appropriate nesting material and to establish the causal chain from enrichment, to behavior, to thermal microenvironment, to physiology, to well‐being and Reduction and Refinement of mouse use in laboratories. Nest building is an adaptive behavior that increases survival and reproduction in the wild. We hypothesized that nesting material would allow mice to alleviate cold stress by building insulating nests and creating a unique microenvironment within the cage. The aim of our first experiment was to determine how much material (0‐10g) was preferred by mice at different ambient temperatures. Within standard ambient temperatures, all mice preferred 6‐10g of nesting material. Thus, mice should receive no less than 6g but may need 10g or more to alleviate thermal stress. We also found some interesting information on primary modes of behavioral thermoregulation. Some mice appear to be primarily nesters, other mice prefer to relocate to a warmer temperature, while the rest seem to combine the two
strategies. This work was published in PLoS One in early 2012.
Our second study investigated whether appropriate provision of nesting material altered thermogenesis. We found that dome nests radiate less heat and males showed energetic reductions from nest building. Only one of our three types of mice had reduced non‐shivering thermogenesis, based on brown fat protein expression. This study has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Physiology and Behavior. Lastly, we investigated, in collaboration with Charles River Laboratories, whether reduced thermogenesis from insulating nests would free resources and improve reproduction in a large scale breeding facility. All mice provided with nesting material showed improved breeding performance without increased food consumption. One of the three types of mice tested showed an increase in pup survival to weaning. This improvement has the potential to significantly reduce the number of breeding mice needed to achieve a certain level of production for sale or for scientific purposes. Six papers on this and related work have been published or are planned for publication.
The research collaboration with Charles River resulted in a postdoctoral opportunity for me to further investigate behaviour and welfare in laboratory rodents. The company continues to be interested in researching refinements to common husbandry practices, procedures, and potential enrichments. This position along with my previous research has led to the harmonization of effective and validated nesting enrichment in Charles River’s North American breeding facilities, potentially impacting the lives of millions of animals.
It was a tremendous honour to be one of the inaugural recipients of an award that commemorated the work at UFAW of Professor William Russell and Rex Burch that ultimately led to the worldwide adoption of the principles of the 3Rs. Mice represent approximately 90% of the animals used in laboratory research, and I believe that this award has and will lead to the significant refinement of mouse husbandry in laboratories, which in turn will lead to a significant reduction in their use.