Effect of blood collection technique in mice on clinical pathology parameters.

A study was conducted in normal healthy C57BL/6 mice to determine the effect of method of blood collection on clinical pathology parameters and to provide value ranges for these parameters. Males and females were used and were randomly assigned to treatment groups based upon phlebotomy method. The blood was collected using one of four methods: intracardiac (IC), a single attempt at collection from the caudal vena cava (VC), collection from the caudal vena cava with collection of any extravasated blood from the peritoneum (MC), or retroorbital phlebotomy (RO).