Methods for the euthanasia of experimental animals--the ethics, esthetics and personnel safety

In this paper there are shown chemical and physical methods of euthanasia of vertebrate animals. All methods are divided into three categories: A) Acceptable methods of euthanasia, B) methods acceptable only for unconscious animals, C) methods that are not acceptable for euthanasia. The acceptability or non-acceptability of the method is determined by ethic or aesthetic conceptions and also by conceptions of the personnel safety and the environment. There is provided a table of acceptable methods of euthanasia. Recommendations of working group of the Federation of Laboratory Animal Science Association (FELASA) were taken into consideration in this paper. The survey can be useful for the experimenters and personnel concerned with laboratory animals.