Response to Roustan et al. 'Evaluating methods of mouse euthanasia on the oocyte quality: cervical dislocation versus isoflurane inhalation': animal welfare concerns regarding the aversiveness of isoflurane and its inability to cause rapid death

摘要

In a recent article in this journal, Roustan et al. 1 examined the effect of euthanasia technique upon the quality of oocytes harvested from mice and concluded that cervical dislocation was preferable to an overdose of the volatile anaesthetic isourane in terms of oocyte quality. It is gratifying to see researchers examining their choice of euthanasia technique. However, the premise of this study appears to have been that, in terms of animal welfare, an overdose of isourane would have been preferable to cervical dislocation if it afforded an equal quality of oocyte; I suggest this presumption is not supported by the scientic evidence. In contrast to the assumption of Roustan et al., there is evidence that isourane may be aversive to rodents, whereas there is no current evidence that cervical dislocation, when performed correctly, causes suffering.