FELASA 2025 presentation: Assessing lidocaine-based analgesia for mouse ear notching: Insights into strain-specific reactions
From the beginning of 2024, a new national law on animal protection in Finland (1165/2023 3 §) requires laboratory rodent ear notching to be performed only with "appropriate pain relief". However, the European Union directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (2010/63/EU) classifies ear notching as a routine identification method rather than a procedure, leaving no specific guidelines on suitable analgesia at the EU or the national level. This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of a lidocaine-based cream as analgesia (EMLA cream 5%, lidocaine + prilocaine 25+25 mg/g, Aspen Pharmacare Australia) for mice undergoing ear notching.
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