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.

  • Research Note
  • Published:

Analysis of environmental sound levels in modern rodent housing rooms

Abstract

Noise in animal housing facilities is an environmental variable that can affect hearing, behavior and physiology in mice. The authors measured sound levels in two rodent housing rooms (room 1 and room 2) during several 24-h periods. Room 1, which was subject to heavy personnel traffic, contained ventilated racks and static cages that housed large numbers of mice. Room 2 was accessed by only a few staff members, contained static cages only and housed fewer mice. In both rooms, background sound levels were usually about 80 dB, and transient noises caused sound levels to temporarily rise 30–40 dB above the baseline level; such peaks occurred frequently during work hours (8:30 AM to 4:30 PM) and infrequently during non-work hours. Noise peaks during work hours in room 1 occurred about two times as often as in room 2 (P = 0.01). Use of changing stations located in the rooms caused background noise to increase by about 10 dB. Loud noise and noise variability were attributed mainly to personnel activity. Attempts to reduce noise should concentrate on controlling sounds produced by in-room activities and experimenter traffic; this may reduce the variability of research outcomes and improve animal welfare.

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

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Sound levels for room 1 (high traffic, high stocking density, used by numerous investigators; left column) and room 2 (low traffic, low stocking density, used by few investigators; right column).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Milligan, S.R., Sales, G.D. & Khirnykh, K. Sound levels in rooms housing laboratory animals: An uncontrolled daily variable. Physiol. Behav. 53, 1067–1076 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sales, G.D., Milligan, S.R. & Khirnykh, K. Sources of sound in the laboratory animal environment: A survey of the sounds produced by procedures and equipment. Anim. Welf. 8, 97–115 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Sales, G.D., Wilson, K.J., Spencer, K.E.V. & Milligan, S.R. Environmental ultrasound in laboratories and animal houses: a possible cause for concern in the welfare and use of laboratory animals. Lab. Anim. 22, 369–375 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Turner, J.G., Bauer, C.A. & Rybak, L.P. Noise in animal facilities: why it matters. J. Am. Assoc. Lab. Anim. Sci. 46, 10–13 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Turner, J.G., Parrish, J.L., Hughes, L.F., Toth, L.A. & Caspary, D.M. Hearing in laboratory animals: Strain differences and nonauditory effects of noise. Comp. Med. 55, 12–23 (2005).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Perkins, S.E. & Lipman, N.S. Evaluation of microenvironmental conditions and noise generation in three individually ventilated rodent caging systems and static isolator cages. Contemp. Top. Lab. Anim. Sci. 35, 61–65 (1996).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. American National Standards Institute. ANSI S3.6: Specifications for Audiometers (American National Standards Institute, Washington, DC, 1989).

  8. Ehret, G. Age-dependent hearing loss in normal hearing mice. Naturwissenschaften 64, 506–507 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Heffner, H.E. & Heffner, R.S. Hearing ranges of laboratory animals. J. Am. Assoc. Lab. Anim. Sci. 46, 20–22 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Radziwon, K.E., Stolzberg, D.J. & Dent, M.L. CBA/CaJ mouse audiograms using the psychophysical method of constant stimuli. Abstr. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 31, 318 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Chang, E.F. & Merzenich, M.M. Environmental noise retards auditory cortical development. Science 300, 498–502 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Speechley, W.J., Hogsden, J.L. & Dringenberg, H.C. Continuous white noise exposure during and after auditory critical period differentially alters bidirectional thalamocortical plasticity in rat auditory cortex in vivo. Eur. J. Neurosci. 26, 2576–2584 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Cook, R.O., Nawrot, P.S. & Hamm, C.W. Effects of high-frequency noise on prenatal development and maternal plasma and uterine catecholamine concentrations in the CD-1 mouse. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 66, 338–348 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kimmel, C.A., Cook, R.O. & Staples, R.E. Teratogenic potential of noise in mice and rats. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 36, 239–245 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Nawrot, P.S., Cook, R.O. & Staples, R.E. Embryotoxicity of various noise stimuli in the mouse. Teratology 22, 279–289 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hamernik, R.P., Qiu, W. & Davis, B. The effects of amplitude distribution of equal energy exposures on noise-induced hearing loss: The kurtosis metric. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 386–395 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Henry, K.R. & Chole, R.A. Genotypic differences in behavioral, physiological, and anatomical expression of age-related hearing loss in the laboratory mouse. Audiology 19, 369–383 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Hulcrantz, M. & Li, H.S. Inner ear morphology in CBA/Ca and C57BL/6J mice in relationship to noise, age, and phenotype. Eur. Arch. Otorhinolaryngol. 250, 257–264 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Erway, L.C., Willott, J.F., Archer, J.R. & Harrison, D.E. Genetics of age-related hearing loss in mice: I. Inbred and F1 hybrid strains. Hear. Res. 65, 125–132 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Erway, L.C., Shiau, Y., Davis, R.R. & Krieg, E.F. Genetics of age-related hearing loss in mice. III. Susceptibility of inbred and F1 hybrid strains to noise-induced hearing loss. Hear. Res. 93, 181–187 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Henry, K.R. Lifelong susceptibility to acoustic trauma: Changing patterns of cochlear damage over the lifespan of the mouse. Audiology 22, 372–383 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Miller, J.M., Dolan, D.F., Raphael, Y. & Altschuler, R.A. Interactive effects of aging with noise induced hearing loss. Scand. Audiol. 27, 53–61 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ohlemiller, K.K., Wright, J.S. & Heidbreder, A.F. Vulnerability to noise-induced hearing loss in 'middle-aged' and young adult mice: a dose-response approach in CBA, C57BL, and BALB inbred strains. Hear. Res. 149, 239–247 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Shone, G., Altshuler, R.A., Miller, J.M. & Nuttall, A.L. The effect of noise exposure on the aging ear. Hear. Res. 56, 173–178 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Davis, R.R., Cheever, M.L., Krieg, E.F. & Erway, L.C. Quantitative measure of genetic differences in susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss in two strains of mice. Hear. Res. 134, 9–15 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Davis, R.R. et al. Genetic basis for susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss in mice. Hear. Res. 155, 82–90 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Yoshida, N., Hequembourg, S.J., Atencio, C.A., Rosowski, J.A. & Liberman, M.C. Acoustic injury in mice: 129/SvEv is exceptionally resistant to noise-induced hearing loss. Hear. Res. 141, 97–106 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Henry, K.R. Audiogenic seizure susceptibility induced in C57BL/6J mice by prior auditory exposure. Science 158, 938–940 (1967).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Willott, J.F. Comparison of response properties of inferior colliculus neurons of two inbred mouse strains differing in susceptibility to audiogenic seizures. J. Neurophysiol. 45, 35–47 (1981).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Rabat, A. Extra-auditory effects of noise in laboratory animals: The relationship between noise and sleep. J. Am. Assoc. Lab. Anim. Sci. 46, 35–41 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Harris, C.M. in Handbook of Acoustical Measurements and Noise Control (ed. Harris, C.M.) 4.1–4.18 (Acoustical Society of America, New York, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Voipio, H.M., Nevalainen, T., Halonen, P., Hakumäki, M. & Björk, E. Role of cage material, working style, and hearing sensitivity in perception of animal care noise. Lab. Anim. 40, 400–409 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Naff, K.A., Riva, C.M., Craig, S.I. & Gray, K.N. Noise produced by vacuuming exceeds the hearing thresholds of C57Bl/6 and CD1 mice. J. Am. Assoc. Lab. Anim. Sci. 46, 52–57 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders that were awarded to B.J.M. (grant number R01DC000954) and to A.M.L. (grant number F32DC005393) and by research core and training grants that were awarded to the Center for Hearing and Balance at Johns Hopkins University (Paul Fuchs, principal investigator, grant number P30DC005211; Eric Young, principal investigator, grant number T32 DC000023). We thank Sarah Poynton for comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda M. Lauer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lauer, A., May, B., Hao, Z. et al. Analysis of environmental sound levels in modern rodent housing rooms. Lab Anim 38, 154–160 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0509-154

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0509-154

This article is cited by

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