Animal production with slanted cages
In our laboratory, we are maintaining various kinds of disease model animals (mainly mice) by brother-sister-mating.
Some mouse strains used as disease models show quite low reproductive performance.
For efficient maintenance of these mice with low reproductive performance, we invented a new housing method as follows:
- We put one female and one male at five weeks of age into a normal cage for mating.
- When the female became pregnant (confirmed by its swollen stomach), we keep their cage slanted at 30 degrees (see photo).
- We leave the cage untouched for three to five days after we confirm its delivery.
- After three to five days after delivery, we make the cage back to normal horizontal position.
| Normal and slanted cages | A cage slanted at 30 degrees |
|---|---|
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With this housing method, we can accomplish stable and efficient maintenance of mice with low reproductive performance, i.e., ICGN mice (nephrosis model), EL mice (epilepsy model).