ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2017
To Group or Not to Group? Good Practice for Housing Male Laboratory Mice.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 189 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats.BMC biology · 2023Pooled it
- Association between cagemate number and risk of death in mice: a time-varying covariate analysis using Cox frailty models.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Laboratory conditions matter: social housing in male and female laboratory mice in a multicenter study approach.Lab animal · 2026Article
- Reducing the strain on calorie restriction.Life metabolism · 2026Article
- Of mice and gender: considering gender norms in rodent models.Biology of sex differences · 2026Review
- Impact of Bedding Volume on Cage Microclimate and Behavior in 129SV and Desmin-Knockout (Des-/-) Mice.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Ethological Constraints and Welfare-Related Bias in Laboratory Mice: Implications of Housing, Lighting, and Social Environment.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Social context suppresses food anticipatory activity and associated thermoregulation in mice.PloS one · 2026Article
- Effects of Cage Change and Nest Transfer on Artificial Intelligence-Measured Behaviors in Male C57BL/6 Mice.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2026Article
- APOL1 G1 and G2 risk alleles modulate severity of diet-induced obesity in a transgenic mouse model.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Environmental Exposure to the Common Trunk of Mammalian Appeasing Pheromone Modulates Social Behavior and Reduces Fight Wounds in Male Mice.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Conditioned versus innate effort-based tasks reveal divergence in antidepressant effect on motivational state in male mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- A customised combination of environmental enrichment reduces aggression in CD-1 male mice.Laboratory animals · 2025Article
- Deriving safe limits for N-nitroso-bisoprolol by error-corrected next-generation sequencing (ecNGS) and benchmark dose (BMD) analysis, integrated with QM modeling and CYP-docking analysis.Archives of toxicology · 2025Article
- Haploinsufficiency of the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene in the Inbred C57BL/6J Strain Alters Behavior, Immunity, and Oxidative Stress, Especially After Acute Stress.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Pharmacological agents and injection stress, but not social isolation, alter cognitive judgement bias in the mouse touchscreen operant chamber.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Natural variations of adolescent neurogenesis and anxiety predict the hierarchical status of adult inbred mice.EMBO reports · 2025Article
- Unveiling the Phenotypic Variability of Macrophages: Insights from Donor Diversity and Pooling Strategies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Laying the groundwork for reptile welfare assessment in zoos and private keeping: A literature-based proposal.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Review
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is widely recommended to group-house male laboratory mice because they are 'social animals', but male mice do not naturally share territories and aggression can be a serious welfare problem. Even without aggression, not all animals within a group will be in a state of positive welfare. Rather, many male mice may be negatively affected by the stress of repeated social defeat and subordination, raising concerns about welfare and also research validity. However, individual housing may not be an appropriate solution, given the welfare implications associated with no social contact. An essential question is whether it is in the best welfare interests of male mice to be group- or singly housed. This review explores the likely impacts-positive and negative-of both housing conditions, presents results of a survey of current practice and awareness of mouse behavior, and includes recommendations for good practice and future research. We conclude that whether group- or single-housing is better (or less worse) in any situation is highly context-dependent according to several factors including strain, age, social position, life experiences, and housing and husbandry protocols. It is important to recognise this and evaluate what is preferable from animal welfare and ethical perspectives in each case.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.