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Blood collection is a common procedure in laboratory animal and wildlife research as well as in captive animal care. Refinement, as part of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal use), should be considered when selecting a blood collection site and how the blood will be collected. This suggests, when you are collecting blood from animals, it's important to consider collection sites that are the least painful/distressful for them and ensure that the appropriate blood volume is collected. Positive reinforcement training (rewarding the animal for completing the behavior or task asked of them) may also be used to reduce their stress and allow for them to remain awake during collection.
Blood Collection from Animals Literature
Below are results from literature searches on blood collection from animals. If you want to find literature on this topic for a certain species, you can build upon these search strings by including animal search terms. For example, edit the search and include "(rat OR rats OR rattus OR rodent OR "rattus norvegicus" OR "r norvegicus")" to find information on rat blood collection. To learn more about building search strings, visit AWIC's alternatives literature searching page or if you need help finding information, contact us.
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PubMed
Resources
Blood Sampling
National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).
NC3Rs shares a resource hub on blood collection in various laboratory animals to help personnel choose the most appropriate and humane technique for blood sampling.
NORINA Database: Blood Sampling
Norecopa.
The NORINA (A Norwegian Inventory of Alternatives) database contains resources (videos, webpages, journal articles, slide decks, and more) on refinements to blood sampling of research animals. Some of these resources are NAL materials provided by AWIC.