f6098d8b__and_Use_of_Laboratory_Animals__Comments
[ID] 10 [Entry Date] 03/02/2011 at 01:02:16 PM [Affiliation] Organization [Organization Name] Mayo Clinic [Organization City and State] Rochester MN [Comments] 
Comment 1: The mouse housing conditions for breeding that have been recommended (Table 3.2 and associated text) disregard natural mouse reproductive behavior, and will have negative consequences for mouse social living. The guide states that professional experience is the basis for the new requirements, but also states that scientific studies that have been performed were not used to generate the new rules. The fact remains that mice live in harems in the wild. They also live in nests in which many individuals occupy a limited space. But now without scientific basis, this new guide has purposely put forth new rules whose end result will be to make mouse breeding monogamous -- this is because over 90% of mouse housing for research is done in cages of a standard size, which, according to the new rules, will only allow 1 male and 1 female mouse to breed, instead of at least 2 females in a harem as would occur in nature. This hideous recommendation will double the cost of mouse housing, and will slow research, but worst of all, animal welfare will not be served by depriving mice of their natural breeding behavior. Get rid of this new recommendation, which has no basis in facts, and in which no one, especially not the mice, will be better off.
Listing of Public Comments on Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals