Effects of individual housing on visceral pain sensation in mice

Individual housing can induce physiological and behavioral changes on domestic and laboratory animals. The aim ofthe present study was to investigate the effects of individual housing on visceral pain sensitivity. Mice were separatedfor 4 weeks until pain testing began. Their visceral pain sensitivity was compared to the group housed mice. Bothmale and female single-housed mice showed signifcantly reduced visceral pain sensitivity, but results showed thatthe reduction of pain was greater in individually-housed male mice. We could conclude that individual housing haseffects on pain sensation in mice.