MEET the Easter bunny with a difference. Modelled on New Zealand white rabbits, it has a body made of silicone and synthetic fur, with veins and other features made from plastic tubing.
The artificial rabbit is designed by the Koken company of Tokyo for laboratory technicians to practise on before being let loose on real animals. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the same weight, shape and size as the real thing, so people get used to handling it,鈥� says Paul Sanders of B&K Universal, a company in Hull licensed by Koken to sell the rabbits in Britain.
Students can use the rabbit to practise procedures such as tube feeding, giving injections and catheterisation. The most important feature is the marginal ear vein, he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where 99 per cent of intravenous injections are made, and blood samples taken.鈥�
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A reservoir in the stomach, covered with a Velcro flap, captures liquids that are injected, and tubes connected to the reservoir pressurise the ear vein to add realism to the extraction of 鈥渂lood鈥� samples.
An artificial trachea leading to the stomach allows students to practise feeding by tube. The rabbits are all females, with urethras that can be catheterised. Sanders says that catheterisation is important in fertility studies, for example, or to take urine samples.
Les Ward of Advocates for Animals, a lobby group opposed to animal experiments, welcomes the development of the rabbit. There are 鈥渁ppalling鈥� stories about poor handling of rabbits by inexperienced technicians, he says. 鈥淲e welcome anything that benefits animals.鈥� Ward says his organisation would encourage research institutes to take up the artificial rabbits.
The rabbit is the second laboratory animal that Koken has produced for teaching purposes. Two years ago, the company launched a silicone rat (Technology; 22 May 1993). 鈥淲e鈥檝e sold several hundred in Europe,鈥� says Sanders.
