ABSTRACT

The continued demand for laboratory mice as biomedical models of disease necessitates the refinement of diagnostics and treatments for this species. Further, many health conditions and unique strainspecific behaviors in mice can be monitored and managed for improved animal and overall colony health (Bothe et al., 2005). Development of mouse strains and maintenance of experimental models require significant investments of research funds and intellectual capital put toward specific medical model discovery and progress. Therefore, emphasis will be placed on means to promote longevity of individual animals in lieu of postmortem diagnostics, if at all possible. General information about working with laboratory mice is best reviewed in the companion text, The Laboratory Mouse (Danneman et al., 2012). Further background information on strains, stocks, and genotypes can also be obtained by visiting the originating vendor source websites; additional resources are highlighted in Chapter 5.