title: The vest-collar as a rodent collar to prevent licking and scratching during experiments.
abstract: Various types of restraint collars have been used for research animals, and the Elizabethan collar (E-collar) is the most commonly used. However, animals can be choked by the E-collar or they tend to remove it; furthermore, repeated rubbing and scratching of the collar may chafe the neck. We developed a new restraint collar with a vest to overcome these limitations. The vest-collar (V-collar) can be worn similarly to a vest, in contrast to the E-collar, which is fixed around the neck. A cone-shaped collar is attached to the vest in the V-collar and is made of Eva foam to surround the chest softly, accompanied by a transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film for visibility. To evaluate the performance of the V-collar, we conducted experiments with mice wearing the V-collar and the E-collar. Both groups showed normal weight gain and food intake. Glucose and stress hormone levels showed no significant differences, and no stress-associated leukocyte profiles were observed during the experiments. However, despite the short experimental duration, more than half of the mice in the E-collar group showed injury to the skin on the neck, with increased thickness of the epidermal and keratin layers. Moreover, inflammatory cell counts were higher in the E-collar group than in the V-collar group. In conclusion, the V-collar, in contrast to the E-collar, does not cause skin injuries in animals and is thus beneficial for animals and investigators. Investigators can effectively use the V-collar to enhance laboratory animal welfare.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuro-Medicine, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yura
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuro-Medicine, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ye Eun
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Cheol-Won
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea vet1982@hanmail.net heschung@kist.re.kr.
authors.forename: Dae-Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuro-Medicine, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hesson
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D051379:Mice; D011482:Protective Devices; D011897:Random Allocation; D012149:Restraint, Physical / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Elizabethan collar; laboratory animal; mice; restraint collar; rodents; vest-collar