What's the most humane way to euthanise a lab mouse?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-04-26 09:01

International

Euthanasia methods mimicking high altitudes may offer more humane deaths for lab mice, according to UK researchers. They compared mouse behaviours associated with negative wellbeing (ear scratching, ear posture and head flicks) in mice euthanised using gradual decompression with animals killed using carbon dioxide exposure, which is the current most common practice in research. They found fewer behavioural indicators of pain and anxiety during decompression than among the mice exposed to carbon dioxide. As euthanising millions of rats and mice is necessary for medical and scientific research every year, the authors say their findings suggest the new method could help minimise unnecessary discomfort for the animals.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Striving for humane deaths for laboratory mice: Hypobaric hypoxia provides a potential alternative to carbon dioxide exposure

Summary: Rodents are the most widely used laboratory animals worldwide, and millions of mice and rats are used annually in scientific and medical research. Exposure to carbon dioxide (CO2) gas remains one of the most widely used methodologies despite well-proven welfare concerns. We investigated whether killing with hypobaric hypoxia (a process equivalent to ascending to a high altitude) was associated with better welfare outcomes for killing laboratory mice compared to CO2. Our findings support the notion of a minimally negative animal experience and as such demonstrate that hypobaric hypoxia could be the basis of significant improvement for killing laboratory mice.

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Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Newcastle University, UK

Funder: We would also like to thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for funding the research project (grant no. BB/S007210/1). The Roslin Institute was funded by a BBSRC Institute Strategic Program Grant BB/P013759/1.

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