ArticlePloS one2019
Nitrogen gas produces less behavioural and neurophysiological excitation than carbon dioxide in mice undergoing euthanasia.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- CO and NPflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Striving for humane deaths for laboratory mice: hypobaric hypoxia provides a potential alternative to carbon dioxide exposure.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- A review of methods used to kill laboratory rodents: issues and opportunities.Laboratory animals · 2022Review
- Determining Candidate Hypobaric Hypoxia Profiles for Humane Killing of Laboratory Mice.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Voluntary Oral Ingestion of a Sedative Prior to Euthanasia with COAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Humanely Ending the Life of Animals: Research Priorities to Identify Alternatives to Carbon Dioxide.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2019Article
- Alternatives to Carbon Dioxide-Taking Responsibility for Humanely Ending the Life of Animals.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most commonly used gas euthanasia agents in mice, despite reports of aversion and nociception. Inert gases such as nitrogen (N2) may be a viable alternative to carbon dioxide. Here we compared behavioural and electrophysiological reactions to CO2 or N2 at either slow fill or rapid fill in C57Bl/6 mice undergoing gas euthanasia. We found that mice euthanised with CO2 increased locomotor activity compared to baseline, whereas mice exposed to N2 decreased locomotion. Furthermore, mice exposed to CO2 showed significantly more vertical jumps and freezing episodes than mice exposed to N2. We further found that CO2 exposure resulted in increased theta:delta of the EEG, a measure of excitation, whereas the N2 decreased theta:delta. Differences in responses were not oxygen-concentration dependent. Taken together, these results demonstrate that CO2 increases both behavioural and electrophysiological excitation as well as producing a fear response, whereas N2 reduces behavioural activity and central neurological depression and may be less aversive although still produces a fear response. Further studies are required to evaluate N2 as a suitable euthanasia agent for mice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.