4 ms·
Why is CO2 different for "small" animals than "large" animals? If CO2 is humane for chickens, say, then why do they sometimes use Nitrogen or Argon, which are m
by bloak 6y ago
Why is CO2 different for "small" animals than "large" animals? If CO2 is humane for chickens, say, then why do they sometimes use Nitrogen or Argon, which are more hazardous for humans and probably more expensive?
- hprotagonist 6y agospeed of onset is proportional to body size; above a certain size it's impractical to induce loss of consciousness fast enough with CO2 compared with, say, a .45 to the brainstem.
- badRNG 6y agoNitrogen is largely viewed as the more humane option compared to CO2
- hprotagonist 6y ago" Concern regarding animals being hypoxic prior to unconsciousness led the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia to conclude neither nitrogen nor argon is an acceptable euthanasia method for rodents." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605172/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605172/
- downerending 6y agoMy prior impression was that nitrogen (at high concentration) would induce unconsciousness quite rapidly, and painlessly. Obviously hypoxia is part of this, but I'd never heard of this as being distressing in itself. Does anyone have further insight on this? (CO2 buildup, on the other hand, is inherently distressing, though the AVMA doc suggests that pigs would become unconscious in about two minutes, under proper conditions.) Thanks for the link.
- sokoloff 6y agoIndustrial nitrogen is incredibly cheap as it's basically a high-volume byproduct of the production of other industrial gases. (When you need to extract Argon, you have about 100x as much N2 and O2 as a by-product.)