The Swiss legislation for animal protection (see TSchV, Art. 134: Requirements for personnel doing experimentations on living animals) states that ex. veterinary surgeons or people doing animal experiments etc. have to get their practical training on living rats, mice and rabbits.

 

The training for taking of blood samples and making intravenous injections causes the animals a lot of stress and pain. Due to the inexperience and nervousness of many trainees, the rabbits often develop ear swellings and hematoma.

 

In order to avoid this painful part for the animals and to reduce the tension of the trainees, NPM has developed the silicone ear as an animal-friendly alternative.

The future animal keeper can get a first and realistic hands-on training in taking of blood samples and making intravenous injections before doing these applications in living animals; the artificial model is as an equivalent replacement for the living animal.

 

This idea has been received with great interest and since 2009, the silicone ear has been used in a number of training courses for laboratory animal science. Thanks to rigorous testing, evaluation and listening to feedback from participants of the laboratory animal science courses, the rabbit silicone ear has been continuously improved and refined.