The newly published open-access book Home Cage Monitoring in Rodents: A Global Effort provides a comprehensive overview of home-cage monitoring (HCM) technologies and their growing role in laboratory animal science, bringing together international expertise across academia, industry, and veterinary disciplines.
The book highlights how HCM enables continuous, automated and minimally invasive monitoring of animals in their home environment, improving data quality and reproducibility while reducing the impact of handling and short-term testing.
It offers a structured view of the field, covering technological evolution, applications in areas such as disease modelling and behavioural phenotyping, and practical aspects including implementation in animal facilities and workflow optimisation. Attention is given to experimental design and advanced data analysis, where artificial intelligence and machine learning play an increasingly important role in managing large datasets and identifying subtle behavioural patterns. The volume also addresses key topics such as data standardisation, training, and global adoption, supported by an international survey highlighting the growing demand for 24/7 monitoring approaches. Overall, HCM is presented as a key enabler of more robust, reproducible, and welfare-oriented research in line with the principles of the Three Rs.
Within this context, Tecniplast’s DVC® technology represents a practical application of HCM, enabling continuous, cage-level monitoring and supporting the transition toward a more digital and data-driven approach to preclinical research.
Find the book here (Springer nature, 2026)
