Buprenorphine is a widely used analgesic for laboratory rodents. Administration of the drug in an attractive food item for voluntary ingestion is a desirable way to administer the drug noninvasively.
The method refi nes the standard analgesic procedure and has the potential to improve the welfare of laboratory mice and rats. However, many aspects of the voluntary ingestion method still need to be investigated. This paper examines the concept of voluntary ingestion of analgesia and reports new findings about voluntary ingestion of buprenorphine in mice.