What is it about?

Light enables vision and exerts widespread effects on physiology and behavior, including regulating circadian rhythms, sleep, hormone synthesis, affective state, and cognitive processes. Appropriate lighting in animal facilities may support welfare and ensure that animals enter experiments in an appropriate physiological and behavioral state. Furthermore, proper consideration of light during experimentation is important both when it is explicitly employed as an independent variable and as a general feature of the environment.

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Why is it important?

How can light be measured for laboratory mammals? How can experimental conditions be replicated? What lighting is suitable for husbandry? Lighting conditions for laboratory mammals are currently set according to the sensitivity of human vision. This consensus view defines alternative animal-centric metrics and provides guidance for their use in research to improve animal welfare.

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This page is a summary of: Recommendations for measuring and standardizing light for laboratory mammals to improve welfare and reproducibility in animal research, PLoS Biology, March 2024, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002535.
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