Environmental Enrichment improves the welfare of the animals in their care and directly impacts lab results.
The 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act (Public Law 99-198, the Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals Act) added several new provisions to the law, including the requirements to provide an opportunity for dogs to exercise and a mandate to provide an environment "adequate to promote the psychological well-being of non-human primates". Six years later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published implementing regulations pertaining to this amendment, referred to as the Animal Welfare Regulations (AWRs) [1]. These regulations stipulate several aspects of the housing and management of captive primates, such as addressing the social needs of primates; providing cage complexities; giving special consideration to some classes of primates, such as infants; ensuring adaptation to restraint devices and minimizing their use as much as possible; and having a mechanism to exempt specific animals (e.g., sick animals) from the "environment enhancement" program.
Click on the links below for more information on an enrichment program.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/Legislat/awabrief.shtml
http://www.ivis.org/advances/reuter/stewart/ivis.pdf
Check out our products page for some great environmental enrichment ideas for all your lab animals.
http://www.animalspecialties.biz/Catalog.html