Miniature pig (minipig) has been considered as an important laboratory animal in the developmental biotechnology researches with respect to xenotransplantation, stem cell, somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo transfer. Given that the laboratory minipigs are normally housed at an indoor facility, they pass the time with lying or sleeping unless it is feeding time. Therefore, it is necessary to provide environmental enrichments to satisfy their innate needs and to lessen atypical behaviors caused by stress, on the purpose of welfare. We quantitatively investigated the type of preferable enrichment for the laboratory minipigs as well as its effect on their daily life. They presented a great interest to the pliable pail but a rapid loss of attraction to non-preferable enrichments. When the daily life of the single housed minipigs was quantified based on duration of playing or resting, they were more actively engaged in lively activities in the presence of enrichments. In addition, the provision of enrichments could effectively alleviate the conflicts during group housing when new pen mate was introduced, resulting in reduction of wound cases. We believe the considerations of animal welfare are essential to the conduct of better research because animals in the non-stressful environment will be more physiologically stable and provide more reliable results in the animal experiments.

INTRODUCTION
 MATERIAL and METHOD
  1. Ethics and animals
  2. General housing and husbandry
  3. Preferable enrichments
  4. The effect of enrichments in minipigs` daily life
  5. The effects of enrichments in the group housing
  6. Statistical analysis
 RESULT
  1. Preferable enrichments
  2. The effect of enrichments in minipigs` daily life
  3. The effects of enrichments in the group housing
 DISCUSSION
 DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
 REFERENCES

• Ryoung-Hoon Jeon(College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University)
• Seung-Joon Kim(College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University)
• Won-Jae Lee(College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University) Correspondence