Specific experimental protocols necessitate transportation, a potentially stressful event that could confound results. We determined adrenocortical activity by measuring fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs), as a stress marker, in prepuberal (three-week old) female C57BL/6J, C57BL/6NCrl, FVB/NCrl, Crl:CD1(ICR), and BALB/cAnCrl mice. On each transport day, five female cage mates per genetic background were weaned and transported in stable groups via truck from the breeding to the research facility. Fecal pellets were collected on Days 0, 1, and 4. Mice were superovulated for embryo production to determine if repeated fecal collection impacts this procedure. The average duration of transportation over 600 km and from packing to unpacking of mice was 7.24 and 22.62 h, respectively. FCM levels increased from Day 0 to Day 1 and decreased on Day 4 in all genetic backgrounds except in FVB/NCrl, but only B6N showed significantly higher FCM levels on Day 1. Furthermore, embryo production was not affected by repeated feces collection. The results show that weaning and immediate transport of prepuberal mice from the breeding to the research facility led to temporal and genetic background-dependent increases of adrenocortical activity in four of the five genetic backgrounds investigated, which returned to baseline levels within four days.
Keywords: animal welfare; glucocorticoids; mouse; stress; transportation.