Research

Housing and Caging Conditions

Nowadays, various caging systems are commercially available. Our studies are focused on the effect of these different caging systems on animal behavior and development. Our aim is to highlight the effects of these systems on the development and behavior of the animals and the importance of those effects on the quality of the obtained experimental results. The results were published in well-recognized Laboratory Animal Science peer reviewed scientific journals. A lot of our attention is also aimed toward the better understanding of the lighting conditions of animals and  how light affects different behavioral studies.

Although, environmental enrichment is considered of very important and is obligatory by the new European Directive 2010/63, very little is known about the evaluation, development and implementation of environmental enrichment policies. We are running projects to evaluate different kind of materials, which could be used in the everyday practice for the enrichment of caging environment and notify the pros and the cons for the animals and the animal users. To perform evaluation studies we are using either commercially available enrichment devices or other kind of common materials, which could be used for this purpose.

Minor Refined Techniques

Early recognition of pregnancy is very important for the management of an animal facility. For this, we have developed methods which facilitate the early recognition of pregnancy with the least disturbance to the animals. The real-time ultrasound is used as an alternative diagnostic method for pregnancy from day 9. Also, a new mathematical model has been developed for the early recognition of pregnancy in rats based on their frequent body weight measurment.

Our interest is also to develop various refined methods for commonly used techniques. The development of an “enriched” method for the estrus synchronization was presented in the ScandLAS Meeting and obtained the first poster award. Similarly an intravenous catheterization method for mice undergoing dynamic microPET/CT imaging was developed and presented in the ScandLAS meeting, once again obtaining the first poster award.