Acclimatization of mice to different cage types and social groupings with respect to fecal secretion of IgA and corticosterone metabolites.

Stress associated with transport and change of environment may have widespread effects on physiological parameters in laboratory animals. To investigate the time needed for mice to acclimatize to a new environment, based on fecal IgA and corticosterone excretion, eightweek-old BALB/c mice of both genders were housed either in groups of eight in different cage types in open conventional cages, in Individual Ventilated Cages (IVC), in open conventional cages inside a plastic isolator, or in different group sizes (8, 4, 8, 10 or 12 mice in each group) in open conventional cages. Feces were collected from each cage on routine cage changing. There was no significant difference in corticosterone excretion in feces between animals housed in the different cage types or between animals housed in different group sizes. IgA excretion for both males and females was found to be affected by transfer of mice into a novel cage, and it was found that it takes at least four weeks for the mice to acclimatize to a new environment with respect to this parameter.