Laboratory Animals > Volume 43, Number 3 > Pp. 215-223

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Original Articles

The diet board: welfare impacts of a novel method of dietary restriction in laboratory rats

I H E Kasanen ¹ , K J Inhilä ¹, O M Vainio ², V V Kiviniemi ³, J Hau ⁴, M Scheinin ⁵, S M Mering ¹ and T O Nevalainen ^1 6

¹ National Laboratory Animal Center; ² Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine; ³ IT Centre, University of Kuopio, PO Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland; ⁴ Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Copenhagen and University Hospital of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; ⁵ Department of Pharmacology, Drug Development and Therapeutics, University of Turku, and Clinical Pharmacology, TYKSLAB, Hospital District of Southwest Finland, Turku, Finland; ⁶ Department of Basic Veterinary Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Corresponding author: Iiris Kasanen. Email: Iiris.Kasanen{at}uku.fi

Laboratory rats are commonly fed ad libitum (AL). Moderate dietary restriction (DR) decreases mortality and morbidity when compared with AL feeding, but there are several obstacles to the implementation of DR. Traditional methods of restricted feeding disrupt normal diurnal eating rhythms and are not compatible with group housing. We have designed a novel method, the diet board, to restrict the feeding of group-housed rats. Animals fed from the diet board had 15% lower body weight than the AL-fed animals at the age of 17 weeks. The welfare effects of diet board feeding were assessed by comparing the stress physiology of diet board fed animals with that of AL-fed animals. Diet board feeding was associated with higher serum corticosterone levels and lower faecal secretion of IgA, suggesting the diet board causes a stress reaction. However, the AL-fed group had larger adrenal glands with higher adrenaline and noradrenaline content than the diet board animals. No gastric ulcers were found in any of the animals at necropsy. The diet board thus appears to cause a stress reaction when compared with AL-fed rats, but no apparent pathology was associated with this reaction. The diet board could help to solve the health problems associated with AL feeding, while allowing the rats to be group-housed and to maintain their normal diurnal eating rhythms. The diet board can also be seen as a functional cage furniture item, dividing the cage into compartments and thus increasing the structural complexity of the environment. In conclusion, the diet board appears to possess refinement potential compared with traditional methods of DR.

Key Words: Dietary restriction • rats • welfare • diet board • stress

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