margaret koziel MD wrote:
>> Hello all. I am currently starting some murine experiments after several
> years of doing only human studies. Specifically, I am interested in
> immune responses in mice that express a viral protein in the liver.
> Most of the labs I know use cervical dislocation alone (seems like
> that's because they have done it for 15 years). Our animal care
> committee strongly disapproves of cervical dislocation as a method of
> euthanasia. However, in the course of writing protocols for our animal
> care committee, I reviewed some of the literature on methods of
> euthanasia and the effect of different methods on cellular proliferation
> and CTL assays. I couldn't find much, but a couple of studies showed
> alterations of both Th and CTL responses when other anesthestics were
> combined with cervical dislocation (eg methoxyflurane, pentobarb, or
> CO2). Does anyone have any experience with different methods of murine
> euthanasia? If there were any differences, were they significant or
> trivial? Also, since one of the readouts of the experiments is
> hepatitis, has anyone using methoxyflurane encountered this as a
> significant problem?
>> Thanks,
>> Margaret Koziel
> Beth Israel Deaconess Med. Ctr.
> Boston MA
Margaret,
Will your animal care committee accept CO2 narcosis as an acceptable
euthanasia method for mice? This is rapid, (1-2 minutes) appears to
cause no suffering and involves no use of synthetic anaesthetic agent.
It is accepted by the UK Home Office as a schedule 1 killing method, and
I would suspect we have the strictest licencing procedures in the World.
Derek Gray
Nuffield Department of Surgery
Oxford
