Table 3.

Animal models

Animal	Size	Advantages	Limitations	Applications
Mouse	very small	low cost, amenability, standardized variants	post-operative management, low translability	chemically- and genetically-induced OA
Guinea pig	very small	low costs, similarity with human OA	sedentary behaviour, low translability	spontaneous and chemically-induced OA
Rat	small	low cost, amenability	post-operative management	surgically- and chemically-induced OA
Rabbit	small	amenability	self-regeneration, differences with human anatomy, post-operative management	surgically- and chemically-induced OA
Dog	medium/large	radiologic evaluation	high costs, perception	spontaneous and surgically-induced OA
Sheep/goat	large	amenability, radiologic evaluation, large joints	high costs, physiology	meniscectomy
Horse	large	radiologic evaluation	high costs, anatomy, perception	spontaneous OA and overuse