Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • In Brief
  • Published:

MICE

Addressing pre-weaning mortality in pups

Lab Animal volume 49, page 291 (2020)Cite this article

Morello, G.M. et al. PLoS One (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236290

Unfortunately, not all mouse pups that are born will make it to weaning. Mortality rates, however, can vary, and it’s unknown whether the conditions in the handful of published experimental studies into the issue, which do point to some potential causes of pre-weaning mortality, reflect the realities at large breeding facilities. Researchers recently examined historical data for over 200,000 C57/BL6 mice bred at the Babraham Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK and modeled the effects of overlapping litters, litter size, and sibling and dam ages on pup mortality.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lab Animal http://www.nature.com/laban/

    Ellen Neff

Authors
  1. Ellen Neff
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ellen Neff.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Neff, E. Addressing pre-weaning mortality in pups. Lab Anim 49, 291 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-020-0651-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-020-0651-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing