Hau J. Teaching humane science: Should live animals be used when educating future biomedical scientists? ALTEX. 2005;23(Special Issue):42-45


Abstract

National laws and regulations require that individuals who work with laboratory animals must have appropriate skills and qualifications for performing experimental procedures. FELASA has produced proposals concerning educational and training requirements for technicians and scientists working with laboratory animals. Maximal implementation of refinement and reduction through ensuring that all staff is competent with respect to the species of animals they are going to work with will usually require animals to be used in hands-on practicals in well structured courses. Handling and restraining animals require that conscious animals are used, whereas injection techniques, assessment of the effect of anaesthesia and euthanasia can be trained on fully anaesthetised animals in non-recovery practical sessions. The use of live animals on mandatory courses for scientists allows the teaching of the most humane attitudes to animals as well as proper ways to handle, restrain and anaesthetise animals. On-the-job training is unlikely to be of the same quality and result in uniform good results as compared with high quality courses. On training courses it is possible to emphasise the importance of prioritising animal welfare above the scientific results, and to introduce the students gradually to humane techniques by using AV-materials and dummies. Experience demonstrates that the course-item that young scientists rank as the most important is the practical sessions during which they are taught how to handle the animals, how to gentle and condition them and how to restrain them without stressing the animals and how to perform common simple procedures on anaesthetised animals.





Link to journal: ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation