Introduction to Laboratory Animal Science LAS

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Introduction to Laboratory Animal Science (LAS)

• Timo Nevalainen
• NLAC Veterinary Faculty Universities of Kuopio
  Helsinki
• http//www.uku.fi/laitokset/vkek/

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World of Science

• Extremely competitive-for resources, funds and
  personnel
• Publish or perish !

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Laboratory Animal Science ?

• Jann Hau, University of Uppsala
• Basic LAS Concerns the animals themselves
• Applied LAS Deals with the animal as a
  scientific model

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Laboratory Animal Science ?

• K-J. Öbrink
• Laboratory animal science is a science auxiliary
  to biological and medical research, but still a
  well demarcated discipline in research and
  teaching.
• It consists of four main parts
• genetics and characteristics of laboratory
  animals
• effect of homeostatic mechanisms on animal
  experiments
• laboratory animal husbandry and basic animal
  experiment methodology
• legislation, decrees and laboratory animal ethics
  

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Trends in Science

• The sophistication of biomedical research is
  increasing at a rapid pace
• Most evident in two areas
• molecular biology
• artificial organs
• Could something be done better ?

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The goals of this course

• Category C competence for scientists
• Training the trainers
• Other categories
• A animal care personnel
• B research technicians
• D LAS specialists

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Why are We Experimenting on Animals ?

• Search for pure effects
• variables can and must be controlled
• small number of animals
• In biased studies there are other effects
• Standardization means small variation - and the
  opposite

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Animal Care Program

• Animal Care and Use Committee
• Animal Care
• health surveillance
• research aspects
• welfare aspects
• Assistance to researchers
• consulting
• methodological

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Regulation of research

• EU 5th Environment program (1992)
• Each member state should decrease 50 number of
  animals used by year 2000
• Not approved by Council of Ministers
• Follow up meeting 1997 (Brussels)
• aim at less animals / project

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How are we doing with numbers?

• Numbers 50 down already if counted as animals
  used
• Which is more common
• using too many or too few animals ?
• Total picture is different if we count animal
  care days
• explosion of genetically manipulated animals
• longer duration of experiments

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The EU Directive 86/609/EEC

• An experiment shall not be performed on an
  animal, if another scientifically satisfactory
  method of obtaining the result sought, is
  reasonably and practicably available.
• The European Commission and the EU Member States
  must actively encourage and support the
  development, validation and acceptance of methods
  which could reduce, refine or replace the use of
  laboratory animals.

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3Rs by Russel Burch

• Reduction
• any decrease in the numbers of animals used to
  obtain information of a given amount and
  precision
• Refinement
• any decrease in the incidence or severity of
  procedures applied to animals necessarily used
• Replacement
• the substitution of conscious living higher
  animals by non-sentient material
• WITH THE SAME SCIENTIFIC RESULT

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Modes of Ethics

• Radar ethics
• ethical values come from outside and
  individuals are expected to adapt
• Gyroscope ethics
• Values produced by people themselves, and are
  based on own moral consideration
• Which model scientists should follow ?

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Animal Care and Use Committee

• Info necessary to know ?
• Lives in balance
• Likely hood of getting the info reliably
• study design, number of animals
• housing conditions
• 3Rs in use
• anaesthesia, analgesia euthanasia
• clear, humane endpoints

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Porters rating

• A. Purpose of study
• B. Probability of reaching the purpose
• C. Species
• D. Anticipated pain
• E. Duration of pain
• F. Duration of experiment
• G. Number of animals
• H. Animal care

• Scoring 1-5
• Points C-H
• max 30
• limit 15
• Points A-H
• max 40
• limit 22
• Ref Nature 356 101-102, 1992

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Specification of the test situation

• Why ?
• Improved reliability
• Increased reproducibility
• Reduction in number of animals
• Reduction in time and cost
• Minimalization of errors
• More realistic extrapolation to the same or other
  species including man

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Animal Welfare

• Emphasis on environmental enrichment
• tubes, blocks etc in cage, group housing
• effect on variation of results ?
• Gentle handling, no screaming
• 3Rs in practise

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Approaches to enrichment

• Laboratory rodents can be effectively enriched
  using standard husbandry
• Cage is barren and lacks the necessary elements
  for wellbeing
• No new materials 80s-approach becomes doesnt
  matter of the 90s

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Night view after 19.00
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Aspen tube
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Index for Number of Animals Needed

• Nindex (nenrichment-ncontrol) / ncontrol
• when index is 1, you need twice the number of
  controls
• when index is -0.5, you get the same result with
  half the number of animals

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Number of Animals Needed
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Anaesthesia

• Required for most painful procedures
• Often effects to results unknown
• Bolus dosing in use - anaesthesia level changes
  all the time
• Stable anaesthesia preferable, eg infusion or
  inhalation
• How to describe anaesthesia level ?

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Bedding volatile compounds / with highest sums
concentration microg/g
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Bedding volatile compounds / with lowest sums
concentration microg/g
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LAS Centers

• National USA/NIH S/BMC N/SIF FIN/NL
  AC
• Others ILAR CCAC Primate
  centers (USA, NL, Kenya)

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LAS / Institutions

• Commercial sector
• Private
• Jackson Laboratory
• University and institute animal facilities
• grass root level training research

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LAS / Societies

• AALAS (USA)
• FELASA
• GV-SOLAS
• LASA (UK)
• Scand-LAS
• FinLAS
• BALTLASA (EstLASA- LithLASA)

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LAS / How to get information

• Books UFAW Handbook, ACLAM series, CRC Handbook,
  International Index
• Scientific journals
• Comp Med (Lab Anim Sci) (USA)
• Lab Anim (UK)
• Scand J Lab Anim Sci

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LAS / Information

• News letters Mouse News Letter, Contemporary
  Topics (AALAS), LASA Newsletter
• Bioinformatics on Internet COMPMED, RAT TALK,
  RAT RESEARCH, WWW-pages

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http//netvet.wustl.edu/e-zoo.htm