Abstract
This chapter provides the information necessary when selecting a rodent model for research, including detail on providing husbandry and care, designing experiments, and monitoring and maintaining rodent health. The regulatory environment governing the care and use of animals in research, teaching, and testing is complex, multilayered, and continuously evolving. The regulatory and accreditation agencies, policies, and principles are discussed in this chapter, as these facets of animal research are critical on many levels. Researchers should familiarize themselves with these since each agency can have a significant impact on a particular research project or the institution under which the research is being conducted. In addition, animal protocols, details of rodent model origins, stocks, strains, and genetic modifications, housing conditions, general health care, shipping factors, acclimation to new environments, as well as normal and abnormal physiological parameters in different species, conditions, and ages are tabulated, considered, and discussed.
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Tetens-Woodring, J. (2015). Optimal Guidelines for Monitoring and Maintaining Rodent Health for Behavioral Research: What’s Right with My Rodent?. In: Bimonte-Nelson, H. (eds) The Maze Book. Neuromethods, vol 94. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2159-1_13
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