Automatic Blood Sampling is a technique for automatically drawing blood from freely moving undisturbed animals. The AccuSampler® enables routine collection of sample sizes between 5µl to 3 ml at time intervals down to 4-5 minutes.

This technique is predominantly used in preclinical trials. Common areas of use are:

• Pharmacokinetics
• Pharmacodynamics
• ADME
• Toxicology
• Safety Pharmacology
• Biomarkers 

ABS presents several advantages:

Compliance with the 3R Guidelines
Reduction: The number of animals can be significantly reduced since several samples can be drawn from the same animal.
Refinement: The animals do not experience stress during sampling which is performed automatically without disturbing the animal. Less stress means less interference with hormone levels or blood sugar influence.

Accuracy and Reproducibility
ABS produces more accurate and reproducible results than manual sampling – the system controls volumes, actual timepoints, flow rates etc. 
A complete PK profile can be obtained from one animal and the animal can serve as its own reference e.g iv and po.

Resources
Less resources are needed for preparing and performing studies. The AccuSampler ® software controls the sampling which means that studies can run unattended over night. This leads to an increased sample throughput

Time to market
The number of screened substances can be increased, which shortens the overall pre-clinical phase and also reduces the time to market.

Cost efficiency
ABS provides high cost effectiveness due to a more simplified
planning process, unattended operation and use of fewer animals.