Group size planning for breedings of gene-modified mice and other organisms following Mendelian inheritance

• DOI: 10.1038/s41684-023-01213-1
• Publication Date: 2023-07-24T16:01:51Z
• Authors: Vladislava Milche...; Philippe Bugnon; Emiel B. J. ten B...; Dominique Vanhecke; Frank Brand; Achim Tresch; Thorsten Buch
• Keywords: Male; General Veterinary; Litter Size; 3400 General Veterinary; 610 Medicine & health; Article; Mice; Pregnancy; 570 Life sciences; biology; 590 Animals (Zoology); Animals; 10239 Institute of Laboratory Animal Science; Animal Science and Zoology; Female; 1103 Animal Science and Zoology; Software

AbstractColony management of gene-modified animals is time-consuming, costly and affected by random events related to Mendelian genetics, fertility and litter size. Careful planning is mandatory to ensure successful outcomes using the least number of animals, hence adhering to the 3R principles of animal welfare. Here we have developed an R package, accessible also through an interactive public website, that optimizes breeding design by providing information about the optimal number of breedings needed to obtain defined breeding outcomes, taking into account specific species, strain, or line properties and success probability. Our software also enables breeding planning for balanced male-to-female ratio or single-sex experiments. We show that, for single-sex designs, the necessary number of breedings is at least doubled compared to the use of all born animals. While the presented tool provides preset parameters for the laboratory mouse, it can be readily used for any other species.