Animal Refinement for Laboratory Rodents

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Veterinary Medicine Section (VMS) in the Comparative Medicine Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) is responsible for the day-to-day care of animal models used here in the institute. We triage and treat animal health cases, as well as perform surgery and imaging on rodent models to aid and support investigator research efforts. Research done within the VMS, itself, focuses on refinement of animal research and ways to minimize pain and distress, as well as enhance the well-being of our research animals. All surgical models are done by trained and skilled surgeons with aseptic technique and gentle tissue handling. A major part of the surgery planning is to provide adequate and complete anesthesia and analgesia, while not compromising or interfering with research goals. This research broadens our understanding of anesthetics and analgesics in mice and rats, allows us to evaluate commercially available veterinary products, and allows for investigation of new ways to compound analgesics for laboratory rodent models. During the last fiscal year, our efforts have been on investigating different anesthetics, analgesics and restraint methods used in rodent models. Specifically, we investigated the use of a new, topical Buprenorphine formation (zorbium). We assessed the dose needed to reach therapeutic levels, collected blood samples to assess how long the drug remained at a therapeutic concentration, and assessed metabolic parameters via an automated home cage system to assess the impact of this drug on murine models post-surgery. The manuscript for this project is in progress. We have recently done another pilot study to assess (3) different methods of restraint to be used for conscious echocardiograms in mice. We have collected blood samples from animals in each restraint group to assess corticosterone levels as an indicator of potential stress. Once the data is analyzed, we hope that this will allow us to refine and re-define the optimal method for restraining mice who require conscious echocardiogram imaging. The Veterinary Medicine Section has concluded the pilot trials to determine an appropriate injectable anesthetic cocktail to be used for a specific NIEHS investigators intravital imaging project- we have piloted the cocktail and the larger project will be done using that cocktail when the investigator is ready to proceed. Furthermore, we have collaborated with those in other branches here at NIEHS to investigate the effects of handling, (manually vs using tunnels), on the behavior of the animals during routine procedures such as cage change. A poster has been created and presented at several conferences from this data, however, the complete manuscript is still in progress.