The importance of reporting housing and husbandry in rat research

Blood corticosterone (CORT), a physiological indicator of the stress response, has also been reported to be significantly lower in male and female Wistar rats 1 day after a prolonged (15 h) transport compared to control animals, but returns to pre-transport values 3 days after arrival in a new environment (Van Ruiven et al., 1998). [...]in agreement with Van Ruiven and colleagues, 3–4 days should be a sufficient period for acclimation after which rats’ stress parameters return to pre-transport levels. Interestingly, rats show minimal habituation to these physiological markers of stress (Balcombe et al., 2004). [...]daily handling may not reduce stress as commonly thought, but instead, may actually work to increase the stress response. [...]it took longer for anxiety-like behaviors to return to pre-stress levels in rats that had cages cleaned less often. Because cage changing may affect behavioral and biological stress responses, it is important for investigators to include this information in experimental reports and to be consistent in frequency of cage changing among treatment groups. [...]these interactions may not always be easily transferred to other rodent models. [...]we recommend documenting in detail all housing and husbandry procedures as part of standard experimental reporting,