Laboratory rodents are typically housed in rooms set at temperatures between 20-22°C, primarily to match the comfort requirements of the humans working in these rooms. These temperatures are well below the rodent thermoneutral zone of 30-32°C, temperatures at which rodents maintain their body temperature without expending extra energy to keep warm. Housing rodents in temperatures lower than this thermoneutral zone subjects them to cold stress, which leads to changes in physiology, behavior, and immune function. In addition, the core temperatures of anesthetized animals drop markedly; therefore, thermal support is critical to the successful recovery of rodents from anesthesia and surgery. The Optimice® SMART system is a 20-cage individually ventilated rack, with an individual heated disk provided to 10 cages. Although designed to counteract cold-stressed mice in the vivarium, we investigated whether this system can also be used for thermal support during recovery from anesthesia.
Keywords: thermoneutral zone, USB power, heated mouse cages, SMART System
Citation: Chua, B. Heldt, D. Investigation Of A Novel Thermal Support System To Recover Post‑Anesthetized Mice. Animal Care Systems (2019)