Animal Care and Use Policies and Guidelines

Guidelines for Toe Clipping of Rodents  [1, 2]

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals [3] recommends the following means of animal identification: "...room, rack, pen, stall, and cage cards with written or bar-coded information; collars, bands, plates, and tabs; colored stains; ear notches and tags; tattoos; subcutaneous transponders; and freeze brands".

Toe-clipping (removal of the first bone of certain toes, corresponding to a predetermined numbering code [4]), as a method of identification of small rodents, should be used only when no other individual identification method is feasible and should be performed only on altricial neonates [3] (i.e., up to 7 days post natal).

Under certain circumstances the techniques of "toe clipping" for the purpose of animal identification may be necessary. The principal investigator must provide a strong justification for use of this particular method. The investigator must assure that the procedure will be performed according to accepted veterinary practice, including post-procedural care.

References:
1. Approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee: 1/20/2005
2. Adapted from the National Institutes of Health Office of Animal Care and Use Guidelines
3. Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, National Research Council, National Academy Press, 1996, page 46.
4. Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician Manual, P. Timothy Lawson (ed.), American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, 2001, p45.