For most mice the only thing deadly about the peanut is when peanut butter is smeared at the base of a spring trap. But mice in the laboratory of the innovative Paul Bryce, at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, experience a different kind of discontent after nibbling the tasty extract. Nose scratching, mouth swelling, shaking and death are some symptoms that mice with a peanut allergy display. While these fuzzy omnivores generally don't develop food allergies, the Chicago-based research team was able to induce an allergic reaction by using a toxin derived from a ... Read More

A worldwide team of researchers has discovered that the ear's ability to limit how much sound can be heard helps protect against hearing loss — and they did it by subjecting laboratory mice to the equivalent of a Mogwai concert. "There's some uncertainty in the field about what this sound-limiting system is used for," said Paul Fuchs, an author of the paper and co-director of the Center for Sensory Biology at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. "Now we've definitively shown that this system functions in part to prevent acoustic trauma." To better ... Read More

If you see a fluorescent green or pink mouse running around in the deserts of western Utah, don't be alarmed: Scientists are merely trying to find out which mice are mating and fighting together, in an effort to track the spread of the deadly hantavirus. "If mice were in contact with a powdered mouse, you'd see the colored bite mark on their ear or tail, or color on their genitals," explained Denise Dearing, a professor of biology at the University of Utah, in a release announcing the findings of the study. Added Christy Clay, who managed the study for her University of Utah Ph.D. thesis ... Read More

Take heart, laboratory mice: Purdue University scientists have found that mice raised in cages can relieve stress the same way mice do in the wild. "The perception of its ability to control stress has a bigger impact on the animal than does the stress itself," said Joseph Garner, assistant professor of animal sciences, in a press release announcing the findings. "Chronic, uncontrollable stress changes animals, making them different than normal. This ultimately makes them less valid research subjects." In the study, published online in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science, Garner ... Read More