Tail tip amputation with minimal restraint is not widely used for mouse phlebotomy. In part, this infrequency may reflect policies influenced by tail tip amputation procedures for genotyping, which involve greater handling and tissue removal...
Due to potential adverse effects on animal wellbeing, the use of nonpharmaceutical-grade substances in animal research must be scientifically justified in cases where a pharmaceutical-grade version of the substance exists. This requirement applies to all...
A common method for urine collection from rats requires the use of a metabolic cage, thus exposing animals to extended periods of isolation in an unfamiliar cage with a wire-mesh floor. A new method involving...
Laboratory mice (Mus musculus) are susceptible to hypothermia, especially during anesthetic events, disease states, and exposure to environmental stressors. Thermal support devices for small mammals are numerous, but often require a power source and may...
Many biomedical research protocols for mouse models involve serial blood collection and analysis. Two common techniques for serial blood collection in this species are the retrobulbar (RB, also called retroorbital) and facial vein (FV) methods...
The incidence of obesity is on the rise in most western countries and represents major risks to health. Obesity causes complex metabolic dysfunctions and can be associated with a large number of secondary diseases. To...
Aggression is a major welfare issue in mice, particularly when mice unfamiliar to each other are first placed in cages, as happens on receipt from a vendor, and following cage cleaning. Injuries from aggression are...
Studies typically involve groups of animals that are injected with placebo compounds. As there are studies that demonstrate that restraint and injection can affect behavior and corticosteroid levels in rodents, the basis of such placebo...
Training nonhuman animals in captivity for participation in routine husbandry procedures is believed to produce a lower stress environment compared with undergoing a general anesthetic event for the same procedure. This hypothesis rests largely on...
Orogastric gavage, while a common method for delivering experimental substances in mice, has been shown to induce stress. To minimize the associated stress with this procedure, sham gavage prior to the start of experiment is...