Abstract
The present study was undertaken to elucidate restraint effects of protecting jackets that are used to protect against biting the sites of percutaneous application in pregnant rabbits. Animals wore protecting jackets from gestational Day (GD) 0 to 19 (GD 0 group) or from GD 6 to 19 (GD 6 group). Major restraint effects were decreases in body weight gain and food consumption, which were marked during the first 2 to 13 days in jackets, and diminished thereafter. Therefore, the animals in the GD 0 group had almost recovered from the effects on GD 16, but those in the GD 6 group were still under the effects of restraint on GD 19. The above findings indicate that early start of habituation to protection jackets will provide better results in practical reproduction studies using percutaneous application in rabbits.
