Euthanasia of laboratory animals must be performed by trained personnel using appropriate techniques, equipment, and reagents in order to effect a death that is humane and satisfies research requirements. Acceptable methods of euthanasia are painless or minimize distress, and are quick and easy to perform, safe for those performing the procedure, and efficient and economic. They are aesthetically acceptable and are done in the absence of other animals. In addition, these methods do not result in gross histological or histochemical changes that would adversely affect research results. This unit offers protocols for euthanasia employing carbon dioxide asphyxiation (see Basic Protocol 1), pentobarbital overdose (see Basic Protocol 2), exsanguination, and cervical dislocation for the mouse, rat, hamster, and rabbit.
This unit describes the techniques for the following routes of injection for mice, rats, hamsters and rabbits: intramuscular, intradermal, subcutaneous, intravenous, intraperitoneal, footpad, and intrathymic. Guidelines are also given regarding injection volumes and temperatures, and the use of proper restraints.
The contemporary distribution of biological diversity cannot be understood without knowledge of how organisms responded to the geological and climatic history of Earth. In particular, Quaternary expansions and contractions of glacial ice sheets are thought to have played an important role in shaping the distribution of biodiversity among current populations in the north-temperate region. In the central U.S., fossil and palynological data provide support for the maintenance of a large southeastern refuge during the last glacial maximum, and many temperate organisms are believed to have responded to glacial expansion by shifting their ranges to southern refugia and recolonizing northward to track the receding ice sheets. Thus, organisms are assumed to track favorable climates, and species ranges are expected to have shifted significantly. Here we present data from a deciduous forest vertebrate, the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) in the central U.S., indicating the maintenance of multiple refugial sources as well as a southward expansion from a northern refugium. These results challenge the view that, during glacial maxima, organisms must have migrated south out of their ranges to track favorable climates.
This unit describes the techniques for the following routes of injection for mice, rats, hamsters and rabbits: intramuscular, intradermal, subcutaneous, intravenous, intraperitoneal, footpad, and intrathymic. Guidelines are also given regarding injection volumes and temperatures, and the use of proper restraints.
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