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{{Short description|Specially formulated food for laboratory animals}}
'''Lab block''' is a type of specially formulated [[food]] fed to [[mice]] and [[rat]]s kept in a [[laboratory]] or as [[pets]]. It is commonly accepted as providing all the necessary [[nutrition|nutrient]]s in an appropriate quantity in order for the animals to remain healthy. The food is produced as homogenous pellets or extruded pieces, the intention being to minimize the variation in nutritional intake between animals.<ref name=pmid31936026>{{cite journal |last1=Weiskirchen |first1=S |last2=Weiper |first2=K |last3=Tolba |first3=RH |last4=Weiskirchen |first4=R |title=All You Can Feed: Some Comments on Production of Mouse Diets Used in Biomedical Research with Special Emphasis on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Research. |journal=Nutrients |date=7 January 2020 |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=163 |doi=10.3390/nu12010163 |doi-access=free |pmid=31936026 |pmc=7019265}}</ref>

The basic type of lab block is made from mainly grains, typically [[maize|corn]], followed by [[soy]], fish meal, animal byproducts, and very high levels of both soluble and insoluble fibers; the ingredient list is provided, but not the proportions. For very specialized use, there's also the "purified diet", which is assembled from individual substances (e.g. casein for protein, corn starch for carbs, soybean oil for fat, cellulose for fiber) in proportions known by the researcher. In both cases, vitamins and minerals are added as required. Drugs may be added to the diet as requested.<ref name=pmid31936026/>

Lab animals with compromised immune systems (e.g. [[nude mice]]) may require sterilization of food and special packaging. Food made by extrusion cooking is typically already near-aspetic, but blender-mixed purified diets tend to require irradiation or autoclaving.<ref name=pmid31936026/>

Alternative names for lab blocks include:
* Grain-based, general-purpose: "mouse diet", "rodent chow", "grain-based diet", "standard chow"
* Grain-based, customized: "custom diet","special diet"
* Purified: "purified chow", "purified ingredient diet", "defined diet"

== Non-laboratory use ==
Lab blocks are also used in pets. They are often also fed to hamsters.<ref>{{cite web |title=Food & Nutrition |url=https://happypawshamsters.com/food-nutrition/ |website=Happy Paws Hamsters}}</ref>

== Contaminants ==
Although an 2015 article claims to have detected various toxins in lab rodent food, a review by EFSA found that most reported levels were only barely above [[detection limit]] and far below legal limits. A few diets did have above-legal levels of lead, but no change of the EU regulatory feeding-test framework was deemed needed.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Review of results published by Mesnage et al. (2015) in PLoS ONE and the laboratory findings communicated by Dr Samsel to Farm Wars: Review of results published by Mesnage et al. (2015) and the laboratory findings by Samsel |journal=EFSA Journal |date=October 2015 |volume=13 |issue=10 |pages=4258 |doi=10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4258|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231918/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231918/] Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995. – Also contains chapters on rats, hamsters, voles, gerbils, guinea pigs.

[[Category:Pet foods]]

Lab block - Revision history

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