Advancing Neuroscience Research by Modernizing Animal Housing to Improve Animal Well-Being and Science

通过现代化动物饲养来促进神经科学研究，以改善动物福祉和科学

• 批准号: 10735300
• 负责人: George Parsons Langan
• 金额: $ 23.4万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-15 至 2024-06-14
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10735300
• 关键词: Address; Animal Experimentation; Animal Housing; Animal Welfare; Animals; Behavioral; Caring; Censuses; Chicago; Data; Electricity; Environment; Environmental Impact; Environmental Monitoring; Faculty; Funding; Future; Growth; Health; Home; Housing; Human; Individual; Institution; Laboratories; Laboratory Animal Medicine; Laboratory Animal Production and Facilities; Laboratory Animal Science; Laboratory Animals; Macaca; Macaca mulatta; Mental Health; Methods; Mission; Modernization; Monkeys; Movement; Mus; Neurosciences; Neurosciences Research; Occupational Health; Operations Research; Outcome; Outcome Study; Outcomes Research; Personal Satisfaction; Play; Primates; Procedures; Recording of previous events; Reproducibility; Research; Research Support; Rodent; Schedule; Science; Sentinel; Side; Steam; Surveillance Program; System; Techniques; Training; Universities; Update; Veterinarians; Water; Well in self; Work; animal care; animal facility; animal resource; design; environmental enrichment for laboratory animals; faculty support; improved; innovation; interest; nonhuman primate; operation; physical conditioning; programs; recruit; research study; restraint; social; social group; species typical behavior

Project Abstract The University of Chicago has a robust and growing neuroscience program. Central to these research studies are non-human primates trained to perform behavioral tasks as part of the research. Training of these behavioral tasks takes months to years to complete and successful outcomes require animals to be in their best physical and psychological health. Assuring animals are kept in excellent health is a shared mission of the Animal Resources Center and the neuroscience laboratories. We approach animal care collaboratively to look for ways to improve animal welfare and research outcomes. This strategy has allowed the Animal Resources Center to make numerous improvements in the care and use of animals at the institution. We propose to outfit newly renovated rooms with a new multi-animal housing system which will increase the size and quality of space available to the animals, enhance their ability to express species-typical behaviors in an enriched environment and improve their social housing opportunities. With these new enclosures, we will be better able to approximate a natural environment for the animals, which in turn makes them better suited for research of human conditions and contributes to enhanced reproducibility and the integrity of the science. We anticipate with this positive change, health problems will potentially be decreased due to improvement in enrichment opportunities and social housing. These enclosures also will streamline operations by creating larger social groups with abundant enrichment space, which will eliminate the need to move enrichment play cages between rooms, and will eliminate the need to move and transport cages between animal rooms and cage wash. This will decrease labor associated with cage changing and cage washing. An environmental impact, through the reduced use of cage wash water, steam, and electricity is also expected. The new housing system will also increase our capacity for maintaining additional primates in the same room by allowing more animals to be housed in the enclosures than possible with standard caging systems. The most enthusiastic aspect of this proposal, however, is the ability to initiate cage side research studies within these enclosures. Cage side studies allow the monkey to conduct their work in their home cage voluntarily without the need for transport to the laboratory, thus also eliminating the need for techniques for water access scheduling in some animals. This will streamline research operations in addition to the husbandry efficiencies already mentioned. The transition to a new housing system will, therefore, not only provide an environment that promotes improved animal health and psychological well-being, and streamline husbandry operations, but will also positively impact research outcomes and improve scientific operations by pioneering a new method to collect research data with the animals.

项目摘要 芝加哥大学有一个强大而增长的神经科学计划。这些研究的中心 是受过培训的非人类灵长类动物作为研究的一部分。这些行为的培训 任务需要几个月到几年才能完成和成功的结果，需要动物处于最佳状态 和心理健康。确保动物保​​持良好的健康是动物的共同使命 资源中心和神经科学实验室。我们协同寻找动物护理以寻找方法 改善动物福利和研究成果。该策略使动物资源中心得以 在机构对动物的护理和使用方面进行大量改进。我们建议新衣服 经过翻新的房间，带有新的多动物住房系统，该系统将增加空间的大小和质量 可用于动物，增强其在丰富环境中表达物种典型行为的能力 并改善他们的社会住房机会。有了这些新的外壳，我们将能够更好地近似 动物的自然环境，这反过来使它们更适合研究人类状况 并有助于增强的可重复性和科学的完整性。我们期待着这个积极的 变化，由于富集机会和社会的改善，健康问题可能会减少 住房。这些外壳还将通过创建丰富的较大社会群体来简化操作 富集空间，这将消除在房间之间移动浓缩笼子的需求，并且 消除在动物室和笼子清洗之间移动和运输笼子的需求。这将减少劳动 与笼子更换和笼子洗涤有关。通过减少笼子的使用，环境影响 还期望清洗水，蒸汽和电。新的住房系统还将提高我们的能力 通过允许将更多的动物放在外壳中，在同一房间内维护其他灵长类动物 使用标准笼系统。但是，该提案中最热情的方面是能够 在这些外壳中启动笼子研究研究。笼子研究允许猴子进行他们的 自愿在他们的家庭笼子里工作，而无需运输到实验室，从而消除了 某些动物的水进度计划需要的技术。这将简化研究操作 除了已经提到的饲养效率外。因此，向新住房系统的过渡将 不仅提供促进动物健康和心理健康的环境，以及 简化饲养业务，但也将对研究成果产生积极影响并改善科学 通过开创一种与动物一起收集研究数据的新方法的操作。