CHINESE HAMSTER
The Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus) was first used as a laboratory animal in China in 1919 in an attempt to identify types of pneumococci in human patients at the Peking medical college.
A breeding stock of 10 males and 10 females was shipped to the USA in 1948, just before the establishment of the People's Republic of China (Chang et al. 1987). The discovery of hereditary diabetes in the Chinese hamster made them popular over the next two decades in diabetic research (Harkness & Wagner 1995). They are also the favored species for genetic research, having only 22 chromosomes (Lipman & Foltz 1996; Whittaker 1999).The Chinese hamster is also known as the striped or gray hamster. They are small, weigh 30-35 g, with the female being about 10% smaller than the male (Chang et al. 1987; Harkness & Wagner 1995). The fur is grayish black with a dorsal stripe. They are quite pugnacious (especially the females) and so must be kept singly (Lipman & Foltz 1996). Like the Syrian they are polyestrous but with a slightly longer gestation period of 21 days.
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