Health and Welfare of Resreach Animals Richard E. Brown Psychology Department Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 4J1
What is Animal Welfare? Concern for the well-being of research animals To limit the distress, pain and fear animals experience in laboratory research. Protection from cruelty to animals; humane behaviour to animals. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA, founded in England in 1824. Ensuring that research animals can lead a normal life.
The five freedoms 1. Freedom from thirst and hunger 2. Freedom from discomfort 3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease 4. Freedom to express normal behavior 5. Freedom from fear and distress
What should be considered? Housing Handling Feeding Breeding Experimental procedures Reduction of pain Killing animals
Housing Type of cages Number of animals per cage Individual housing? Cage bedding Type of food and water Social experience Enrichment Cage cleaning Housing room environment: light cycles, noise, etc
Handling How do you pick up animals? Transfer to test area? Handling for injections? Post-test handling and returning to home cage. Capture of wild animals. Capture of animals which escape from their cage.
Feeding Type of food Amount of food Feeding schedules Preventing dominant animals from hoarding food.
Breeding Breeding system: one male to 1 or more females Breeding age Breeding cages Breeding diet Birth and parental care Weaning Breeding room environment: Light-Dark cycles, humidity, temperature, nest materials
Experimental procedures Transferring animals to test arena Injections or other invasive treatment Pre-handling to reduce stress Training animals to receive injections using rewards Long-term experiments Restraint of animals
How to recognize poor animal Abnormal behaviour welfare. Abnormal physiological responses: blood pressure, body temperture, heart rate. Loss of weight Elevated stress hormones: cortisol Dirty cages and animals Poor parental behaviour Failure to breed
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Record keeping Cage labels Data books Computer records What needs to be recorded? Every procedure done to each animal.
Severity of Experimental Procedures Based on levels of stress or pain the animal might experience. Mild Moderate Substantial Unclassified - animal will not recover.
Reduction of pain and suffering How to identify pain and suffering in animals? Effects of pain on behavioural research? Simple observation of behaviour vs surgical procedures. How to minimize pain? Pain is the cost animals pay to be research subjects. Dead animals feel no pain, so research on dead animals is not regulated.
How is pain measured? (Following surgery) Twitch Movement patterns Staggering Full stretch
Killing animals Death = Permanent cessation of circulation or destruction of brain. Humane methods of killing Size of animal Anaesthetic overdose: isoflourine, Halathane, iv pentobarbitone Physical methods: cervical dislocation, decapitation. Gases: CO2, Cardiac puncture
The three R s Replacement Using non-live animal preparations: tissue samples, computer simulations, cell cultures Reduction Using fewer animals in each study, calculating optimal sample sizes. Refinement Using proper experimental designs, reducing withingroup variation, ANOVA designs. Understanding the animal s needs
Animal Health and Disease How do you recognize a sick animal? Animal diseases: parasites, viruses, etc. Natural pathogens of laboratory animals. Sub-clinical infections Stress Social aggression, bites, wounds Tumors,
Some signs of sick animals Posture Fur condition Eyes Ano-genital area Weight Diarrhea Abnormal urine colour Wounds or bites Abnormal beahviour - circling, inactive
Anaesthesia and analgesia Anesthetic = drugs that cause loss of feeling or awareness. Gas or injection? Analgesic = drugs that cause reduction of pain. Injection, cream, oral delivery. You may need an anaesthetic to perform surgery and an analgesic to reduce postsurgical pain.
What about Field studies? Observation of animals in the wild Disruption of natural behaviour Using hides or blinds
Injections and drug studies Which drug to use? Which dose? Which method of delivery? Intra-veinous, Intra-peritoneal, Intra-muscular, Subcutaneous, directly into the brain via a catheter.
Health and welfare of laboratory researchers Allergies to animals: respiratory, scratches Infections from animals Zoonoses: Animal diseases transferred to Humans. Animal bites and wounds Injections into own hand when holding animals.
Zoonoses Primates: Herpes B virus, TB, Salmonella Rodents: Rabies, Hantavirus, Salmonella, Helobacter cinaedi Birds: Influenza, salmonella, etc.
Prevention of disease Sterile housing conditions Protective clothing Cleanliness
Cleanliness and sanitation Cleaning cages Animal room cleanliness Cleaning apparatus and equipment Cleaning tools Re-use of needles and syringes to save money?
Three useful references Festing, M.F.W. et al. (2002/2004). The design of animal experiments. Laboratory Animal handbooks No. 14. Royal Society Press. London. Wolfensohn, S. & Lloyd, M. (2003). Handbook of laboratory animal management and welfare, 3rd edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. Dawkins, M.S. & Gosling, M. (no date). Ethics in research on animal behaviour. Published by the Animal Behaviour Society.
Some Websites www.awfc.ca/ Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada. www.awionline.org/lab_animals/ Animal laboratory welfare. www.lal.org.uk/ Laboratory animals. The international journal of laboratory animal science and welfare. www.aclad.org/ American committee on laboratory animal diseases.
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