The diet board: welfare impacts of a novel method of dietary restriction in laboratory rats

Kasanen, Iiris; Inhilä, Katja; Vainio, Outi; Kiviniemi, Vesa; Hau, Jann; Scheinin, Mika; Mering, Satu; Nevalainen, Timo

doi:10.1258/la.2008.008066

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Furthermore, adrenal glands were larger in ad-libitum fed controls than rats restricted to 85%BW [24]. These results suggest that food restriction up to 25% loss of body weight does not adversely affect animal welfare [22]. Furthermore, the resulting higher motivation significantly reduces duration of experimental procedures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Although compared to ad-libitum fed controls rats restricted to 85%BW had higher corticosterone levels overall, the difference was not significant between groups at any of the 5 weekly measures [21]. Another study found no difference in corticosterone levels between food restricted and ad libitum-fed rats [22]. When exposed to restraint stress, calorie restricted rats had significantly lower corticosterone levels than ad libitum-fed rats, suggesting lowered stress reactivity with calorie restriction [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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Different Levels of Food Restriction Reveal Genotype-Specific Differences in Learning a Visual Discrimination Task

2012

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In behavioural experiments, motivation to learn can be achieved using food rewards as positive reinforcement in food-restricted animals. Previous studies reduce animal weights to 80–90% of free-feeding body weight as the criterion for food restriction. However, effects of different degrees of food restriction on task performance have not been assessed. We compared learning task performance in mice food-restricted to 80 or 90% body weight (BW). We used adult wildtype (WT; C57Bl/6j) and knockout (ephrin-A2−/−) mice, previously shown to have a reverse learning deficit. Mice were trained in a two-choice visual discrimination task with food reward as positive reinforcement. When mice reached criterion for one visual stimulus (80% correct in three consecutive 10 trial sets) they began the reverse learning phase, where the rewarded stimulus was switched to the previously incorrect stimulus. For the initial learning and reverse phase of the task, mice at 90%BW took almost twice as many trials to reach criterion as mice at 80%BW. Furthermore, WT 80 and 90%BW groups significantly differed in percentage correct responses and learning strategy in the reverse learning phase, whereas no differences between weight restriction groups were observed in ephrin-A2−/− mice. Most importantly, genotype-specific differences in reverse learning strategy were only detected in the 80%BW groups. Our results indicate that increased food restriction not only results in better performance and a shorter training period, but may also be necessary for revealing behavioural differences between experimental groups. This has important ethical and animal welfare implications when deciding extent of diet restriction in behavioural studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Different Levels of Food Restriction Reveal Genotype-Specific Differences in Learning a Visual Discrimination Task

2012

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“…It is secreted in a diurnal rhythm; in rats, plasma corticosterone levels peak in the early dark phase and reach a nadir in the early light phase. We collected plasma corticosterone in the early light phase to allow small differences between groups to be detected (33). Rats housed with both tubing and chew sticks had the lowest plasma corticosterone, which suggests that environmental enrichment (particularly tubing) may reduce stress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate Measurement of Body Weight and Food Intake in Environmentally Enriched Male Wistar Rats

Beale

Murphy

Harrison

et al. 2011

Obesity

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Laboratory animals are crucial in the study of energy homeostasis. In particular, rats are used to study alterations in food intake and body weight. To accurately record food intake or energy expenditure it is necessary to house rats individually, which can be stressful for social animals. Environmental enrichment may reduce stress and improve welfare in laboratory rodents. However, the effect of environmental enrichment on food intake and thus experimental outcome is unknown. We aimed to determine the effect of environmental enrichment on food intake, body weight, behavior and fecal and plasma stress hormones in male Wistar rats. Singly housed 5–7‐week‐old male rats were given either no environmental enrichment, chew sticks, a plastic tube of 67 mm internal diameter, or both chew sticks and a tube. No differences in body weight or food intake were seen over a 7‐day period. Importantly, the refeeding response following a 24‐h fast was unaffected by environmental enrichment. Rearing, a behavior often associated with stress, was significantly reduced in all enriched groups compared to controls. There was a significant increase in fecal immunoglobulin A (IgA) in animals housed with both forms of enrichment compared to controls at the termination of the study, suggesting enrichment reduces hypothalamo‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis activity in singly housed rats. In summary, environmental enrichment does not influence body weight and food intake in singly housed male Wistar rats and may therefore be used to refine the living conditions of animals used in the study of energy homeostasis without compromising experimental outcome.

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“…24 Using the diet board method, a higher corticosterone response was recorded but without observing any pathology associated with this reaction. 25 However, a majority of behavioural studies in diet restriction has only included individualized animals.…”

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confidence: 99%

Caloric restriction in grouped rats: aggregate influence on behavioural and hormonal data

2017

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The majority of studies in short- and middle-term caloric restriction (CR) have been primarily focused on physiological parameters, improvements in aging, modulation of oxidative stress, and long-term negative effects on cognitive functions. However, single-housing associated with CR may pose many logistical problems. Thus, it is necessary to study the effects of CR under conditions in which animals are group-housed. The aims of this study were to (i) observe the possible differences in the proportion of the weights and social behaviour under ad libitum and CR (at 70%) conditions; (ii) examine the eventual inequalities in the proportion of the weights and social behaviour (the time spent eating under the feeder as an indicator of dominance and empathy, and the number of 'pushes' as an indicator of aggressiveness) in sibling and non-sibling rats under CR conditions; and (iii) compare the concentrations of corticosterone (stress biomarker) in serum under ad libitum and CR conditions. The results indicated the effectiveness of CR in different groups independent of the relationship between the rats. No extreme changes in weight were observed in the CR rats. Behavioural observations also indicated the differences in the total time spent under the feeder and in the number of pushes (higher in both cases for the sibling rats). However, no significant differences in corticosterone levels were observed. Our results suggest the viability of group-housing rats during long periods of CR maintenance.

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The diet board: welfare impacts of a novel method of dietary restriction in laboratory rats

Cited by 15 publications

References 66 publications

Different Levels of Food Restriction Reveal Genotype-Specific Differences in Learning a Visual Discrimination Task

Different Levels of Food Restriction Reveal Genotype-Specific Differences in Learning a Visual Discrimination Task

Accurate Measurement of Body Weight and Food Intake in Environmentally Enriched Male Wistar Rats

Caloric restriction in grouped rats: aggregate influence on behavioural and hormonal data

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