Volume 5, OCTOBER 2010 THE Global Research Education and Training, LLC •57 S. Main Street, #190, Neptune, NJ 07753-5032 Email: [email protected] • Website: www.gr8tt.com R e c o R d In ThIs Issue: Does Lack of Enrichment Invalidate Scientific Data Obtained from Rodents? Great Posters! 4 SPRING 2010 | ENRICHMENTRECORD.COM THE R e c o R d IN THIS ISSUE | October 2010 1 edIToRIAL BoARd 2 Tim Allen, M.S. Animal Welfare Information Center Environmental Enrichment Fights Cancer and Improves Research 4 Genevieve Andrews-Kelly, B.S., LATG Results—What Now for the Biomedical Researcher? Huntingdon Life Sciences Elizabeth Dodemaide, B.V.Sc., M.A., MACVSc What’s Going On With the New Draft Version of The Guide? 6 Associate Director, Laboratory Animal Services Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Canine Socialization Through the Use of “Playrooms” or Exercise Rooms 7 Karen Froberg-Fejko, V.M.D., President, Bio-Serv Does Lack of Enrichment Invalidate Scientific Data 10 Joanne Gere, Founder, BioScience Collaborative Obtained from Rodents? G. Scott Lett, Ph.D., CEO, The BioAnalytics Group LLC Jayne Mackta 13 President & CEO, Global Research Education & Training LLC Emily G. Patterson-Kane, Ph.D. Posters: American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) European (EU) Compliant Housing Environment 14 Animal Welfare Division for Nonhuman Primates in a Toxicology Laboratory Kathleen L. Smiler, D.V.M., DACLAM Consultant, Laboratory Animal Medicine Effects of International Transit and Relocation 15 on Cortisol Values in Cynomolgus Macaques Rhoda Weiner, Weiner & Associates Joanne Zurlo, Ph.D. Director of Science Strategy The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) Upcoming Meetings 16 Please direct all inquiries to Rhoda Weiner, Editor: [email protected] Join the Discussion! To facilitate informed discussion about environmental enrichment, we have We’d Love To heAR fRom you! joined the Linkedin Group called Laboratory Animal Sciences. This group We welcome your comments, observations and contributions allows members of the laboratory animal science community and our readers to The Enrichment Record. Contributors include lab animal to interact over a web-based platform to compare ideas and methods. veterinarians, principal investigators, animal care staff, animal behaviorists, animal technologists and members of the bioscience To participate, you will need to create a Linkedin account and then join the community who promote the 4 Rs: reduction, replacement, Laboratory Animal Sciences Group. refinement and respect. It’s easy! It’s free! It’s a safe and secure place where you can Share your story ideas with Rhoda Weiner, Editor at [email protected] say what’s on your mind. Guidelines for authors can be accessed at Click here to get started. www.gr8tt.com/docs/GUIDELINESFORAUTHORS.pdf New Resource Please give credit where credit is due. Outstanding animal care is truly a team effort, and we ask you to credit colleagues, published reports, articles, and other reference materials that have contributed to your enrichment article. Great ideas don’t happen in a vacuum, and we encourage you to list all sources of inspiration. national Institutes of health The Enrichment Record is not a peer-reviewed journal. Office of However, the Editorial Board of this E-Zine is composed of dedicated volunteers who have extensive Extramural Research experience and expertise in the care of laboratory animals. Members of the Board are involved with all Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW)has a new online resource aspects of this publication. for information on nonhuman primate enrichment and social housing. The Enrichment Record is published in October, January, This resource is provided to assist institutions in enhancing the care and April and July. If you are interested in advertising in well-being of nonhuman primates. You can find new FAQs, a special online The Enrichment Record, please visit: seminar, the OLAW report visits to Chimpanzee facilities, a bibliographic guide http://www.gr8tt.com/docs/adrates.pdf developed by USDA, NAL, AWIC and more. Publisher: Nonhuman Primate Enrichment and Social Housing Resources GR8 (Global Research Education & Training, LLC) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/primate_enrichment-social_hous- 57 S. Main Street, #190, Neptune, NJ 07753-5032 ing.htm http://www.gr8tt.com Jayne Mackta, President & CEO Contact: [email protected] FALL 2010 | THE ENRICHMENT RECORD 1 In Other Words A qUARTERLy E-ZINE/FORUm FOR: Discussing environmental enrichment in the optimal care of laboratory animals Documenting best practices and approaches for addressing challenges of implementation & assessment at every level Sharing data on the impact of environmental enrichment on the science Building the case for integrating enrichment into research design In a recent conversation with a western-trained lab animal veterinarian working in China, I heard a familiar complaint. Local staff are resisting his introduction of basic enrichment for various species of lab animals because they think he adds to the workload and increases costs. Part of the army of professionals invading mainland China, this lab animal vet wants to introduce best practices and encourage fast- growing animal research and testing programs to consider enrichment fundamental to good animal welfare, good science, and good business. Of course, we have all encountered similar resistance and the same old arguments wherever in the world we work. There are still many labs where management and PIs consider enrichment problematic and a compromising variable. One of the ways we can promote enrichment on the merits is to provide scientific evidence that supports environmental enrichment and demonstrates when it advances the science and when it does not. In other words: let’s show them the data! Jayne Mackta, Publisher President & CEO, Global Research Education & Training, LLC (GR8) 2 FALL 2010 | THE ENRICHMENT RECORD Share your ideas with Rhoda Weiner, Editor at [email protected] SHARING CAN ADVANCE ANIMAL WELFARE The Enrichment Record wants to create a searchable database containing policies, protocol questions and SOPs for environmental enrichment. Our success depends on your willingnessof information. to share this kind To learn more, contact Jayne mackta, Publisher: [email protected] The Enrichment Record is published quarterly. If you are interested in advertising in The Enrichment Record, please visit: http://www.gr8tt.com/docs/adrates.pdf or contact Jayne Mackta, Publisher: [email protected] Visit out website—browse past issues: www.gr8tt.com/enrichrecord.html ADvERTISINg RATES ADvERTISINg DEADLINES Single Issue January Issue—December 1 1/4 page $350 April Issue—March 1 1/2 page $500 July Issue—June 1 Full page $1,000 October Issue—September 1 4 Issues 1/4 page $1,120 The Enrichment Record 1/2 page $1,600 is an 8.5” x 11” format. Full page $3,200 Full color; 300 dpi pdfs accepted. FALL 2010 | THE ENRICHMENT RECORD 3 Environmental Enrichment Fights Cancer and Improves Research Results— What Now for the Biomedical Researcher? 4 FALL 2010 | THE ENRICHMENT RECORD Article by G. Scott Lett, Ph.D. CEO, The BioAnalytics Group LLC Emily G. Patterson-Kane, Ph.D. American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Animal Welfare Division The article, “Environmental and Genetic Activation of a During and Cao’s study is a sobering demonstration that Brain-Adipocyte BDNF/Leptin Axis Causes Cancer Remis- enrichment is not just a humane option for the animals; it sion and Inhibition,” * was first published inCell on July is fundamental to scientific validity. It shows that enriched 8, and quickly echoed by online editions of major journals conditions are vital to model the protective mechanisms including The Scientist, Scientific American, Nature and of normal biological functioning. This research opens ex- ScienceDirect. Matthew During, Lei Cao, and their team citing avenues for future investigation, but it also raises at The Ohio State University had found that environ- very challenging questions. If most of our existing dis- mental enrichment (EE) diminishes the susceptibility ease models are based on animals with compromised base of mice to cancer. Compared to the control mice in a health and vitality, just how does this affect the validity of standard cage, the EE mice enjoyed a larger living these models in understanding the progression of disease space, group size, nesting materials and apparatus in normal ‘free range’ humans? And if we need to shift our like wheels, toys and tunnels. When the mice were research baselines by adopting enriched housing, just how injected with tumor cells the control animals developed disruptive will this be to long-running research projects? malignant tumors within 15 days. By contrast, the mice How many of our existing painstaking disease models will, living in the EE for 3 weeks prior to cancer inoculation or should, survive the transition? If a cancer researcher showed significant delay in tumor development and 15 with 20 years of experience (and accumulated animal percent of the EE mice had not developed tumors after data) wants or needs to make a shift to enriched environ- three weeks. In EE mice that did develop malignancies, ments for research animals, will it take each of them five the tumors were 43 percent smaller than the tumors years and 1500 mice to change to the new paradigm? of the control mice. Longer exposure to an enriched environment (6 weeks) produced even more dramatic This landmark study suggests that the adoption of effects. enriched