Toe Clipping Policy
Toe clipping is a method for identification that involves a numerical scheme in which a toe or toes is/are amputated. The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals says, “Toe clipping, as a method of identification of small rodents, should be used only when no other individual identification method is feasible, and should be performed only on altricial neonates1.” Other identification methods include ear notches or tags; tattoos; subcutaneous transponders. Adequate scientific justification for this procedure must be provided in the protocol and approved by the IACUC.
1Altricial neonates: animals considered helpless and whose eyes have not yet opened; Mice less than 12 days old, Rats less than 7 days old.2
2Emory University, Guidelines for Biopsy Procedures to Facilitate Identification and DNA-based Molecular Genotyping of Rodents.
Updated September 25, 2007 by SAK