Applications

Attend a Master in Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare in UAB

The Master in Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare aims to provide expertise and professional excellence in all areas of laboratory animal science relevant to animal experimentation. Specifically, the program is designed for veterinarians and other specialist personnel designated with responsibility for the welfare and care of laboratory animals.
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Speakers at The Irish 3Rs Meeting

We are setting up the first 3Rs Centre in Ireland. This initiative is being explored as a joint approach of the Irish competent authority (HPRA) and academia (Trinity College Dublin), and have already been involved with European 3Rs initiatives like the European 3Rs Centers Platform and ecopa. We would like to organise this first meeting of the Irish 3Rs Centre. The meeting will be held at Trinity College Dublin and aims to gather international experts in different fields of laboratory animal science to serve as a continuous education programme for the Irish community working in the animal research field.
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Speakers at FELASA Designated Veterinarian session

The directive 2010/63/EU estates in its article 25, Designated veterinarian establish the role of the veterinarian in animal facilities, i.e., ‘advisory duties in relation to the well-being and treatment of the animals’. Whereas other areas of the world have well delineated the role of this veterinarian, i.e. chapter four of The Guide in the USA and Canada, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK; in Europe there is a lack of harmonisation and depends not only on the Competent Authority of the country but also on the institution employing the veterinarian the description of the role and the extend to the veterinarian authority. There is thus a need for a harmonised guidance on the role of the Designated Veterinarian across Europe.This FELASA session will help to feed the experience of the European emerging countries in these recommendations for the Designated Veterinarian role.
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Online Course on Laboratory Animal Science for African scientists and Institutional Ethical Review Board Members

Many African countries are using the development of their Pharma industry as a route to economic development. Attention to animal welfare and care, and experimental design is critical in ensuring that these animal studies translate into clinical practice. However, Africa has an extreme shortage of individuals with the knowledge and skills to care for and use research animals. This deficit is a Grand Challenge in itself, hindering the ability of Africa to undertake world-leading research to address its specific health challenges. Opportunities for education and training in research animal sciences across the continent are extremely fragmented and restricted to specific countries. Animal ethics committees are in their infancy or non-existent. There have been limited interventions, led principally by the applicants, to address this knowledge and skills Grand Challenge. However, such training modalities can’t cover long term lagged need of the community and professionals. Therefore, setting up online training for Ethiopian as well as African scientists and biomedical graduate students has a paramount role to improve biomedical research and an ethical review process and to give proper attention to animal welfare.
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AN IMPEDANCE-BASED AUTOMATED HOME-CAGE SYSTEM DISPLAYS ACTIVITY CHANGES IN AN DSS-INDUCED ACUTE COLITIS MODEL

In order to improve the welfare of laboratory animals and the quality of research results, severity assessment of experiments is ethically and legally required. However, there is still a lack of adequate methods. During my doctoral thesis, I was investigating the suitability and adequacy of two automated home-cage monitoring systems for two different gastrointestinal disease mouse models with regard to severity assessment and the contribution to refinement. In the submitted study, I aimed to assess the severity of dextran sulfate sodium colitis induction in mice by contactless monitoring of home-cage activity. Furthermore, activity patterns of mice during routine husbandry were monitored to analyse the impact of handling methods.
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Positive impact on the laboratory mice welfare by establishing a permanent cage-changing day

Our study confirmed that mice are aware of the day of changing and are prepared for that previously, so if we stablish a permanent day at week, we could reduce its negative stressful effect on the scientific results. All groups showed a pronounced increase of production of excrements during the 24 hours after any kind of changing, which continued during the second day in some groups of animals. On the other hand, water consumption increased significantly in all groups the previous 24 hours before changing and in the previous 48 hours in some of them. Considering that cages changing should not be avoided, despite of it can influence not only animal welfare but also the reproducibility of the experiments; our conclusion could minimize that effect by establishing a permanent day for changing and even increasing the interval of that.
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