Refinements were devised for husbandry systems and routine experimental techniques with each tested against current best practice. Hand picking of male mice for experimental group formation was found not to be random. A random number generator provided a more consistent dispersion of dominant males throughout groups. Environmental enrichment reduced aggressive interactions between male mice, suggesting that these animals can be group housed with a reduced risk of injury. The addition of oxygen to euthanasia mixtures of carbon dioxide was found to cause lung haemorrhage in mice, suggesting this refinement is not appropriate when killing mice. The adverse effects of sodium pentobarbitone killing of mice and rats were found to be reversible when lignocaine hydrochloride was added to the euthanasia mixture. Administering acetyl-promazine on completion of surgery eliminated post-operative disturbance following ketamine/medetomidine anaesthesia of rats. Rats showed a clear preference for a darkened environment during recovery from anaesthesia but only preferred 'warmed environments if they had become hypothermic while anaesthetised. Transponder chips were shown to otfer no welfare benefits over rectal probes for determining rat body-temperature. Warming or chilling the injectate reduced injection pain. A novel temperature datalogger was tested and found have potential for use in laboratory animal welfare science.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:645967 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Ambrose, Neil |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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