Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:32:01.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Welfare Impact of Increased Gavaging Doses in Rats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

L Alban ,
P J Dahl ,
A K Hansen ,
K C Hejgaard ,
A L Jensen ,
M Kragh ,
P Thomsen  and
P Steensgaard
L Alban
Affiliation:
Division of Ethology and Health, Department of Animal Science and Animal Health, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Copenhagen, Denmark
P J Dahl
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Medicine, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen and National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
A K Hansen*
Affiliation:
Division of Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pharmacology and Pathobiology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Ridebanevej 3, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
K C Hejgaard
Affiliation:
Division of Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pharmacology and Pathobiology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Ridebanevej 3, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
A L Jensen
Affiliation:
Central Laboratory, Department of Clinical Studies, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Copenhagen, Denmark
M Kragh
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Medicine, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen and National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
P Thomsen
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Medicine, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen and National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
P Steensgaard
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Medicine, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen and National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Textbook recommendations for gavaging rats vary between 1-5 ml for an adult rat. Rats weighing either 130 g or 250 g were gavaged with varying dosages of barium sulphate (BaSO4). After dosing, radiographs were taken at 0, 15 and 60 min. Animals showing a section of the small intestine totally filled with BaSO4 were scored as displaying spontaneous release. Other rats of the same sizes were gavaged with similar doses and subsequently tested in an open-field arena for behavioural abnormalities that might indicate stress or pain resulting from the procedure. Body temperature before and after treatment was recorded using microchip transponders. None of the 250 g rats in the 1 ml dosage group showed spontaneous release through the pyloric sphincter. In the 2 ml and 4 ml dosage groups, only one out of five animals showed spontaneous release. In the 6 ml dosage group, half of the animals showed spontaneous release. In the 8 ml and 10 ml dosage groups, five out of six and four out of five, respectively, showed spontaneous release. If doses were higher than 12 ml, no animal was able to keep all of the BaSO4 in its stomach. In the rats weighing 130 g, the 3 ml dosage group showed only one out of four rats with spontaneous release, whereas in the 5 ml and 7 ml dosage groups, all animals showed spontaneous release. After 15 min, all of the rats in both weight groups showed BaSO4 in the duodenum. Ambulation, rearing up onto the hind legs and defecation, as well as body temperature immediately after dosing, correlated very strongly with the dose (ml kg−1); increasing the dose resulted in reduced ambulation, rearing, defecation and body temperature. However, 10 min after performance of the open-field test, neither body temperature, serum corticosterone nor serum glucose showed any correlation with dose. This study indicates that high doses (ie doses up to 10 ml for a 250 g rat) might be safe to use; however, if an adverse impact on the rat is to be avoided, use of much lower doses should be considered—for example, doses that do not enforce opening of the pyloric sphincter in any rat. This would be less than 4 ml kg−1 in a 250 g rat.

Keywords

animal welfarebody temperaturecorticosteronegavageopen-field testradiocontrastratsphincter pyloriwelfare
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , August 2001 , pp. 303 - 314
Copyright
© 2001 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Amar, A and Sanyal, A K 1981 Immobilization stress in rats: effect on rectal temperature and possible role of brain monoamines in hypothermia. Psychopharmacology (Beri) 73: 157–160CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Armario, A, Lopez-Calderón, A, Jolin, T and Castellanos, J M 1986 Sensitivity of anterior pituitary hormones to graded levels of psychological stress. Life Sciences 39: 471–475CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnett, S A 1975 The Rat. A Study in Behavior. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, USAGoogle Scholar
Bateson, P 1991 Assessment of pain in animals. Animal Behaviour 42: 827–839CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumans, V, Brain, P F, Brugére, H, Clausing, P, Jeneskog, T and Peretta, G 1994 Pain and distress in laboratory rodents and lagomorphs. Report of the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) Working Group on Pain and Distress accepted by the FELASA Board of Management November 1992. Laboratory Animals 28: 97–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broom, D M and Johnson, K G 1993 Stress and Animal Welfare. Chapman & Hall: London, UKCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A P, Dabt, N B, and Leveine, B S 2000 Stress produced by gavage administration in the rat. Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 39: 17–21Google ScholarPubMed
Fallon, M 1996 Rats and mice. In: Laber-Laird K, Swindle M, and Flecknell P (eds) Handbook of Rodent and Rabbit Medicine pp 1 -38. Pergamon Press: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
Georgiev, J 1978 Influence of environmental conditions and handling on the temperature rhythm of the rat. Biotelemetric Patient Monitoring 5: 229–234Google ScholarPubMed
Göb, R, Köllner, U and Klingberg, F 1987 The postnatal development of open field behaviour of the visually deprived rat. Biomedica/Biochimica Acta 46: 215–223Google ScholarPubMed
Hart, B L 1985 The Behaviour of Domestic Animals. W H Freeman and Company: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
Hillyer, E V and Quesenberry, K E 1997 Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Saunders: Philadelphia, PA, USAGoogle Scholar
Hirsjärvi, P and Väliaho, T 1995 Gentled and nonhandled Wistar rats in a mildly novel open-field situation. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 22: 265–269Google Scholar
Howard, B R 1997 Enrichment strategies: harmonization of laboratory animal husbandry. Proceedings of the Sixth FELASA Symposium, Basel, 1996. Royal Society of Medicine Press: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Ivinskis, A 1968 The reliability of behavioural measures obtained in the open-field. Australian Journal of Psychology 20: 173–177CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iwarsson, K, Lindberg, L and Waller, T 1994 Common non-surgical techniques and procedures. In: Svendsen, P and Hau, J (eds) Handbook of Laboratory Animal Science, Volume 1. CRC Press: Boca Raton, USA.Google Scholar
Kort, W J, Hekking-Weijma, J M, TenKate, M T, Sorm, V and VanStrik, R 1998 A microchip implant system as a method to determine body temperature of terminally ill rats and mice. Laboratory Animals 32: 260–269CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraft, V, Blanchet, H, Boot, R, Hansen, A K, Hem, A, van Herck, H, Kunstyr, I, Milite, G, Needham, J R, Nicklas, W, Perrot, A, Rehbinder, C, Richard, Y, De-Vroey, G and Deeny, A 1994 Recommendations for the health monitoring of mouse, rat, hamster, guinea pig and rabbit breeding colonies. Laboratory Animals 28: 1–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liles, J H, Flecknell, P A, Roughn, J and Cruz-Madorran, I 1998 Influence of oral buprenorphine, oral naltrexone or morphine on the effects of laparotomy in the rat. Laboratory Animals 32: 149–161CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Long, N C, Morimoto, A, Nakamori, T and Murakami, N 1991 The effect of physical restraint on IL-1 betaand LPS-induced fever. Physiology & Behaviour 50: 625–628CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seggie, J A and Brown, G M 1974 Stress response patterns of plasma corticosterone, prolactin, and growth hormone in the rat, following handling or exposure to novel environment. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 53: 629–637CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, R, Harker, C T, Vander, A J and Kluger, M J 1986 Hyperthermia induced by open-field stress is blocked by salicylate. Physiology and Behaviour 36: 1179–1182CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Svendsen, O and Hansen, A K 1999 Biologic variation, reproducibility and predictability of experimental research in animals. In: Thomsen, H S, Muller, R N, and Mattrey, R F (eds) Medical Radiology, Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Oncology: Trends in Contrast Media pp 31–41. Springer Verlag: Heidelberg, GermanyGoogle Scholar
Williams, J L and Lierle, D M 1988 Effects of repeated defeat by a dominant conspecific on subsequent pain sensitivity, open-field activity, and escape learning. Animal Learning & Behavior 16: 477–485CrossRefGoogle Scholar