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Ethical issues and the Three Rs

Helping animals through welfare science. Ethical issues and the Three Rs. Penny Hawkins Research Animals Department, RSPCA, UK phawkins@rspca.org.uk p. Promoting fuller implementation of the 3Rs: Replacement, Reduction & Refinement. Developing processes of ethical review.

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Ethical issues and the Three Rs

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  1. Helping animals through welfare science Ethical issues andthe Three Rs Penny Hawkins Research Animals Department, RSPCA, UK phawkins@rspca.org.uk p

  2. Promoting fuller implementation of the3Rs: Replacement, Reduction & Refinement Developing processes of ethical review

  3. Ethical framework in ASPA • ASPA establishes an ethical framework • assess and weigh harms and benefits • make decisions on justification and necessity • Different perspectives on harms and benefits • definitions of harms • ... and potential causes of harm

  4. The entire lifetime experience • Breeding protocols • Transport • Laboratory housing • Husbandry, care and environment • Handling and restraint • Identification • Phenotyping • Scientific procedures • Adverse after-effects • Euthanasia One person’s “best practice” can be another person’s baseline standard

  5. Benefits of medical research • Diseases cause suffering in humans • acute or chronic pain • distress due to mental disorders • physical degeneration • anxiety, distress, depression

  6. Justification • Alleviation of human suffering • Opinion polls show 70 % support animal research for medical progress • There are caveats associated with both of these • There is still a serious ethical dilemma associated with creating animal models of disease

  7. Reasons for reducing suffering • Animal welfare benefits • Better science • Economic benefits • Reassuring the beneficiaries of the research (patients and funders) • Legal requirements

  8. Approaches to refinement • Ensuring that adverse effects are fully recognised and taken into account • Thinking about animals’ basic needs • Defining an effective welfare assessment scheme; regularly and critically reviewing this

  9. What is it like to be …. • a golden retriever with Duchenne? • an MDX mouse? • a marmoset with Parkinson’s? • a rat with schizophrenia? • a geriatric mouse? • a diabetic rat with peripheral neuropathy?

  10. Predicting adverse effects Williams Syndrome: humans and mice

  11. Animals’ basic needs • Safe, predictable surroundings where they can control their environment and take refuge • Stable groups for social animals • Sufficient space for normal behaviours • A suitably stimulating environment that encourages species-specific behaviours (which also requires space)

  12. Noise stress • Noise from human activity induces behavioural and physiological stress responses in rodents • morphology of intestinal mucosa • porphyrin staining • changes in behavioural test paradigms • Working practices can make a significant difference, e.g. 10 to 15 dB Castelhano-Carlos & Baumans (2009) Laboratory Animals 43: 311-327 Voipio et al. (2006) Laboratory Animals 40: 400-409

  13. Enrichment effects • Analgesic self-administration study • C57BL mice • singly vs. groups of 3 • litter vs. litter, nesting material & gnaw sticks • Social housing and enrichment both reduced the need for post-op pain relief Pham et al. (2010) Physiology & Behaviordoi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.01.038

  14. Welfare assessment • Aim is to be consistent and objective • www.mousewelfareterms.org • A “team” approach • including input from animal technologists and care staff, researchers, veterinarians • Objective welfare indicators • Appropriate recording systems, e.g. “score sheets”

  15. Issues with welfare assessment • Many species are adapted to conceal signs of suffering • Nocturnal rodents usually observed when they should be asleep • Lack of awareness of what to look for and where to look

  16. Ongoing research... • “Flank twitch” post laparotomy • www.ahwla.org.uk • Rodents with no apparent cancer pain self-administer analgesics • Many observers concentrate on animals’ faces

  17. Principles of effective WA • Understanding of good welfare, species-specific behaviour and the “normal” animal • e.g. mice with analgesia post-surgery make well structured nests and defaecate outside them; mice without analgesia do not Arras et al. (2007) BMC Vet. Res. 3: 16 www.biomedcentral.com

  18. Keeping pace with new developments • All establishments need a formal mechanism for retrieving and assessing information • Ethical Review Process (ERP) • refinement/project based groups • animal care and use committees • Part of the commitment to reducing harms, improving welfare and improving science — and reassuring patients

  19. Thank you! www.rspca.org.uk/researchanimals

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