Effects of Nesting Material on the Toxicologic Assessment of Cyclophosphamide in Crl:CD1(ICR) Mice.

The provision of nesting material benefits mice by reducing cold stress, improving feed conversion, increasing litter size, and improving adaptive immunity. The effects of toxins are sensitive to environmental changes, and the introduction of novel items can alter results in some toxicologic studies. We hypothesized that nesting material would reduce stress and positively alter immunologic parameters in Crl:CD1(ICR) mice, thus changing typical results from a well-studied immunomodulating drug, cyclophosphamide.

Comparison of two strategies for diagnosis and treatment of infection in dogs (Canis familiaris) with long-term intravascular catheters.

Exteriorized chronic intravascular catheters (ECICs) are used frequently for repeated substance administration, sampling, and measuring of hemodynamic parameters in biomedical research protocols. ECICs can be a management challenge because they have been associated with catheter occlusion, thrombosis, sepsis, and serious clinical sequela. A monitoring regimen that identified infection early and a treatment protocol that eliminated infection would be of great benefit to animals and to research protocols using ECICs.