Koken rat for teaching oral gavage and blood sampling

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Scope of the method

The Method relates to

Animal health
Human health
Other

Education of persons working with laboratory animals

The Method is situated in

Education and training

Type of method

Other

Silicone rat model

This method makes use of

Other (e.g. bacteria)

Description

Method keywords

Oral gavage
blood sampling
Animal handling

Scientific area keywords

education
training

Method description

This silicone rat is designed for training persons to perform oral gavage of fluids and for learning how to perform blood sampling from the lateral tail vein.

Lab equipment

26g needles ;
Syringes.

Method status

History of use

Pros, cons & Future potential

Advantages

It is possible to train persons for performing these techniques without sacrifying animals. It is a good start for people that have no experience at all and also nice to use in a practical where students that do not intend to ever work with rats (or other lab animals) are present.

Challenges

The model has only a limited value since there are quite a lot of differences with real rat tails and the flexibility of the rat is also very limited making it impossible to use certain gavage tubes. It is also quite expensive (certainly the spare tails) and not all tails are from equal quality.

Modifications

I do not have it yet, but I am thinking to possibly switch to the curvet rat, a similar model that can also be used to learn subcutaneous injections.