• DOI:10.1016/j.beproc.2005.09.004
• Corpus ID: 9132709

Hair barbering in mice: Implications for neurobehavioural research

@article{Kalueff2006HairBI,
  title={Hair barbering in mice: Implications for neurobehavioural research},
  author={Allan V. Kalueff and Arevik Minasyan and Tiina Keisala and Z H Shah and Pentti Tuohimaa},
  journal={Behavioural Processes},
  year={2006},
  volume={71},
  pages={8-15}
}

• A. Kalueff, A. Minasyan, +2 authors P. Tuohimaa
• Published 10 January 2006
• Medicine, Psychology
• Behavioural Processes

Barbering (fur/whisker trimming, the Dalila effect) is a behaviour-associated hair and whisker loss frequently seen in laboratory rodents, including mice. Here we analyse barbering behaviour in 129S1, NMRI, C57BL/6 and BALB/c mouse strains and some of their F1 hybrids. Our study shows that barbering in mice, depending on their genotype, is a complex behaviour with several distinct contexts or domains. We observed social (dominant) barbering in NMRI and C57BL/6 mice, sexual over-grooming in 129S1 and C57BL/6 mice, maternal barbering in lactating 129S1 and C57BL/6 mice, and stress-evoked barbering in F1 (NMRIx129S1) hybrids. In contrast, aggressive BALB/c mice and their F1 progeny do not use barbering in their behaviour. We suggest that barbering may be an important complex multi-domain behaviour sensitive to various manipulations, and represent a useful index in neurobehavioural research.