Urologic syndrome associated with wire caging in AKR mice

Individually housed male AKR/NCrlBR mice used in a chronic inhalation experiment were noted to develop a severe obstructive genitourinary condition. The mouse urologic syndrome (MUS) had one or more of the following features: bladder distension; peripreputial urine staining, alopecia, and edema; paraphimosis; urethral blockage; ulcerative balanophosthitis; hydronephrosis; pyelonephritis; rectal prolapse; and perineal ulcerative dermatitis. MUS was less severe and less prevalent in similarly housed B6C3F1/CrlBR and NIH-Swiss mice used in the same experiment. Epidemiologic evidence within the animal facility restricted the syndrome to the inhalation toxicology area. The effects of intermittent water deprivation as well as wire caging on the development of MUS were studied because these conditions were only utilized in the inhalation facility. Male AKR/NCrlBR mice, caged individually in suspended wire caging or kept isolated in polystyrene shoebox style cages containing wire floorwalk bottoms, all developed MUS within 16 weeks. Mice which were housed directly on hardwood bedding in identical plastic caging remained free of the syndrome, as did castrated males which were kept in suspended wire cages. Water deprivation was not found to be a major contributing factor to the development of the condition, but was found to augment its severity. We concluded that although MUS is probably multifactorial in etiology, housing susceptible animals on wire bottom caging may exacerbate the incidence and severity of the condition in certain strains of male mice.