Standardized full-field electroretinography in rabbits

We present a procedure for full-field ERG recording in rabbits, based on the human ERG standards published by the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV). Following initial pilot experiments, six animals aged 3 months and 11 animals between 1 and 2 years were investigated. All animals displayed well detectable and reproducible separate cone and rod responses under appropriate stimulus conditions. The b-wave was smaller in young animals than in old, but there were no similar differences in the b-wave implicit times. The animals had to be lightly sedated, which was shown to have no adverse effects on the recordings. Standard deviations of normalized adult rabbit recordings were comparable to human recordings. The measurements were less precise in young animals. We suggest that our procedure is well suited for further scientific studies in this animal model.