Improved Instrumentation

In this age of microelectronics, fiber optics and laser instrumentation, the potential for refining techniques used in animal experimentation seems almost limitless.  Improved instrumentation can minimize animal distress by reducing the level of restraint and/or manipulation necessary to obtain biological samples.  Included in this category are the use of tethers in a variety of species to allow continuous access to the various organ systems, while permitting the animal virtually unrestricted movement within its primary enclosure.  The advantages of these systems are numerous, not the least of which is minimizing a variety of nonexperimental variables associated with prolonged restraint.

Once obtained, samples can be analyzed in very small volumes for a multitude of parameters.  Examples of this can be found in the commercially available diagnostic laboratory equipment which require only microliter blood samples to perform a variety of diagnostic tests.  The use of smaller sample sizes permits the use of smaller animal species and prevents the need to euthanize many of these species to obtain the necessary volume of blood.  It is now possible to obtain serial blood samples from small laboratory rodents which reduces the number of animals necessary to obtain data over the length of the study.

 

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