Report of the 2012 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting

摘要

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group holds a one-day meeting every autumn so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on rodent welfare issues and share experiences of the implementation of the 3Rs of replacement, reductionand refinement with respect to rodent use. A key aim of the Group is to encourage people to think about the whole lifetime experience of laboratory rodents, ensuring that every potential negative impact on their wellbeing is reviewed and minimised. The2012 meeting addressed a range of topics including rodent use in Chile, caring for aged mice, reducing stress during blood sampling, the welfare impact of different identification methods and implementing the Three Rs in antibody generation. The meetingalso discussed refinement and translatability issues with respect to selecting the appropriate age of rodent for in vivo studies and to rodent studies of neuropathic pain. The day ended with a focus on refining severe (substantial) procedures, with talkson an RSPCA initiative to reduce severe suffering and a practical example of refinements for SOD-1 mice, a genetically altered strain used to study neurodegenerative disease.