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Aggression. --- Contact. --- Coping. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Laboratory mice. --- Laboratory. --- Male laboratory mice. --- Male. --- Management. --- Mice. --- Preference. --- Social contact. --- Social.

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Due to their aggressive nature, male mice are less frequently used than female mice in biomedical research. When aggressive males are being used, individual housing is common practice. The question arises whether this is an acceptable housing for a social species. The present study was designed to gain more insight into the nature of inter-male social contact and into the potential of a form of environmental enrichment (nesting material) to compensate for the lack of social contact. In a series of tests, we analysed whether male mice of different ages preferred to spend time (1) near a familiar cage mate versus an empty cage, or (2) near to a familiar cage mate versus direct contact with nesting material (tissues). Dwelling time in each of the test cages and sleeping sites was recorded, as was the behaviour of the test mice. Results indicated that when other conditions were similar, male mice preferred to sleep in close proximity to their familiar cage mate. Furthermore, the need to engage in active social behaviour increased with age. Tissues were used to a large extent for sleeping and sleep-related behaviour. it is concluded that single housing in order to avoid aggression between male mice is a solution with evident negative consequences for the animals. When individual housing is inevitable due to excessive aggressive behaviour, the presence of nesting material could partly compensate for the deprivation of social contact

Age. --- Aggression. --- Aggressive-behavior. --- Aggressive. --- Animal. --- Animals. --- Behaviour. --- Biomedical research. --- Biomedical. --- Cage. --- Cages. --- Consequences. --- Contact. --- Decreases. --- Deprivation. --- Different ages. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Female mice. --- Female. --- Housing conditions. --- Housing. --- Individual housing. --- Laboratory mice. --- Laboratory. --- Male laboratory mice. --- Male mice. --- Male-mice. --- Male. --- Males. --- Mice. --- Modulation. --- Motivation. --- Mouse. --- Mus-musculus l. --- Need. --- Nesting material. --- Preference. --- Proximity. --- Rats. --- Research. --- Sleep. --- Social behaviour. --- Social contact. --- Social. --- Test. --- Tests. --- Time.

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Environmental enrichment is intended to improve the welfare of laboratory animals. However, regarding male mice, numerous studies indicate an increase in aggressive behavior due to cage structuring. On the one hand, this might be a problem concerning animal welfare. On the other hand, enrichment is though to hamper environmental standardization and to increase variability of data. Furthermore, increasing fights, arousal, and/or injury in enriched housed animals might superimpose other (positive) environmental effects on behavior and physiology. Therefore, the present study investigated effects of environmental enrichment on behavioral, endocrinological, and immunological parameters in male mice of the docile inbred strain ABG. From weaning until day 77 +/- 3 of life, animals were kept in stable sibling groups of four under three different housing conditions: (A) nonstructured Makrolon type III laboratory cages ("standard housing" = S); (B) equivalent laboratory cages that were enriched with a box and scaffolding ("enriched housing" = E); and (C) spacious terrariums that were structured richly (" super-enriched housing"= SE). No differences in agonistic behavior, levels of plasma corticosterone (CORT), and activities of adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) existed among S-, E-, and SE-housed ABG males. Play behavior and general activity increased significantly with increasing enrichment. Concerning immunological parameters, males of both forms of enriched housing showed significantly lower percentages of CD4 and CD8 cells compared to S-housed mice. However, regarding the ratio of CD4/CD8 cells, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IFN-gamma, IgGI, and IgG2a, no significant housing-dependent differences were found. Enrichment did neither hamper standardization nor negatively influence the variability of physiological parameters. In summary, using a docile strain of mice revealed the positive effects of environmental enrichment also on male mice. The lack of adverse effects on behavior

Activity. --- Adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase. --- Adrenal. --- Adrenocortical system. --- Adrenomedullary system. --- Aggression. --- Aggressive-behavior. --- Aggressive. --- Agonistic. --- Animal welfare. --- Animal-welfare. --- Animal. --- Animals. --- Arousal. --- Behavior. --- Boxes. --- Cage enrichment. --- Cage. --- Cages. --- Cell surface antigens. --- Corticosterone. --- Cytokines. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Fight. --- Group. --- Housing condition. --- Housing conditions. --- Housing. --- Immune system. --- Immunoglobulins. --- Increase. --- Injuries. --- Injury. --- Kept. --- Laboratory animals. --- Laboratory cages. --- Laboratory-animals. --- Laboratory. --- Level. --- Life. --- Male laboratory mice. --- Male mice. --- Male-mice. --- Male. --- Males. --- Mice. --- Mus-musculus mammalia. --- Parameters. --- Physiological. --- Physiology. --- Plasma corticosterone. --- Plasma-corticosterone. --- Plasma. --- Play. --- Rats. --- Rattus-norvegicus. --- Social stress. --- Standardization. --- Stress. --- Time. --- Tyrosine-hydroxylase. --- Tyrosine. --- Variability of experimental results. --- Variability. --- Weaning. --- Welfare. --- Wild house mice.