Hematological reference values and animal welfare parameters of BALB/C‐FMABC (Mus musculus) inoculated with Ehrlich tumor kept in the vivarium at ABC Medical School

BACKGROUND: Biochemical and hematological parameters are important tools for assessing the physiological profile of vital organs, and can be recorded to create reference values used for clinical diagnosis of diseases. Many research laboratories lack the means to establish their own set of reference parameters for use in their research, and while there are articles in the literature that discuss laboratory parameters for healthy BALB/c mice, few studies address the evaluation of these parameters in pathological situations, such as in mice inoculated with Ehrlich tumor. METHOD: BALB/c‐FMABC mice previously inoculated with Ehrlich tumor were maintained under appropriate conditions. Blood samples were taken for analysis of hematological parameters using automated and semi‐automated equipment to create a set of the animal welfare parameters for evaluation. RESULT: Results were obtained for all the hematological parameters for all groups analyzed. These showed: statistically significant differences between the initial and final tumor weight; comparable initial tumour volume and weight; an increase in leukocytes in the 7‐day group with a characteristic predominance of lymphocytes and neutrophils; statistically significant changes in RDW in the 21‐day group and in the welfare parameters in the 28‐day group. CONCLUSION: The study successfully defined and established reference values for hematological and welfare parameters for all groups analyzed.