Hello,
We are having some problems with our C57B6/J wildtype mice (male and female) which we order from Charles River, Germany. We've noticed that the percentage of successful pregnancies has decreased and, more problematic, there's a substantially high percentage of mothesr that give birth but neglect their pups (pups die by P3). In addition, the health of some male mice is very questionable since some develop edemas of hindpaws shortly after arrival and consequently end up chewing off the affected foot. These problems appeared sometimes around November 2011. Has anyone noticed something similar with mice ordered from Charles River, Germany? Thanks for your help!
How long have you had the mice?, or is this a long term self sustaining colony that came from a few pair some years back?
We reorder the mice every 4 months. The first time it happened was with our cohort last November (2011).
I see three possibilities:
Something has changed in your physical plant (heating, a/c, new location, caretakers). Outbred mice are usually pretty rugged but are vulnerable to environmental effects. I once had a strain where you had to be very quet in the room and keep the cages covered and out of sight or they would cannibalize the pups.
A problem with CR, I would have a long talk with them.
A pathogen in your lab. Fungus on the cages? virus? You may need to reboot and disinfect the colony.
Just thoughts. Good luck.
What type of caging/bedding are the mice in? Wire bottom cages (which are fairly rare these days, but...) are known to cause paw issues for many animals. On the other hand, I've also seen populations of male C57 background mice who spontaneously developed hindpaw endemas. Maybe you should try a different animal vendor. We order from Jackson Labs and are very happy with their stock.
When you received your mice, did a veterinarian evaluate the mice health, at arrival or post quarantine period? What was the duration the mice were left to acclimate prior to mating? Type of mating done: one to one or harem mating? Was there any variance in the age of sire and dame at this mating? Mice need to be mate early between 6 to 8 weeks old. Health problems, environmental stress (noise, cage humidity and temperature) and handling during pregnancy and giving birth can be variable reasons to cause poor breeding. You may want to foster the abandoned pups to foster mothers (with healthy pups within one or two days older than foster pups) is an option if only few cages have this problem.
Some good breeders can abandon their pups if they fail to recognize the scent of their pups (when the pups are returned to cages after checking for milk spots). When fostering the pups, it’s better to coat the pups with the bedding of the foster mother’s cage prior to mix the foster pups with her original pups.
Hope it helps.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Disease
- Disease Models
- Animal Models
- Rodent Models
- Mouse Models