scholarly journals Risk-Based Approach to the Assessment of Sanitary Safety of Vivariums and Breeding Facilities, and Health Status of Personnel and Laboratory Animals

Author(s):  
E. D. Bondareva ◽  
K. E. Borovkova ◽  
M. N. Makarova

The paper discusses the system of managing risks arising during preclinical studies (risks for the health of personnel and laboratory animals, as well as risks associated with sanitation of premises) as a way to improve and control the efficiency of processes and the safety of facilities involved in preclinical studies.The aim of the study was to analyse the risk assessment system’s efficiency for improvement of drug safety assessment during preclinical studies in the context of animal care and use programmes.Materials and methods: the Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) method was used to assess the sanitary and hygienic conditions in laboratory animal facilities, as well as health status and welfare of laboratory animals and the attending personnel. The study checked the presence of pathogenic and opportunistic microflora as the main potential inconsistencies.Results: the risk assessment performed during monitoring of laboratory animal health, monitoring of surface cleanliness, and assessment of personnel health, helped to establish a list of the most dangerous pathogens that require stricter control. In order to reduce risks arising during preclinical studies, the following set of measures was proposed: monitoring of the living environment and health of laboratory animals, revision of therapeutic and preventive measures for laboratory animals (including adjustment of antibiotic treatment depending on antimicrobial resistance of microorganisms), monitoring of the personnel health status, taking measures to enhance the personnel vigilance with respect to their own health, prohibition to work at the premises for employees showing symptoms, control of how the employees showing symptoms observe the prohibition to work at the premises, organisation of periodic medical examinations for personnel having contact with laboratory animals.Conclusions: the risk-based assessment helped to identify the most dangerous potential inconsistencies (pathogenic and opportunistic microflora) and the necessary preventive measures to control and manage potential risk consequences.

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
R. Remie ◽  
I. M. Cuesta Cobo ◽  
E. N. Spoelstra

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Hans Rensema (1948–2020), medical artist of Microsurgical Developments Foundation.The history of training in microsurgical and experimental techniques in the Netherlands goes back to the 1960s. The training was mostly done on an individual basis. Clinical surgeons could benefit from the 'Wet-Lab' training at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Experimental microsurgery and techniques training for larger groups of bio-technicians and researchers started at Utrecht University in 1993, and later at Groningen University. The first commercial training was offered at the International Microsurgical Training Centre in Lelystad (IMTC,) in 2002. This paper presents the current state-of-the-art training in the Netherlands and some future perspectives.Professor Remie studied Pharmacy at the University of Groningen. After completing his studies in 1983, he specialised in pharmacology and did his PhD on the presynaptic modulation of noradrenergic neurotransmission in the freely moving rat portal vein. He joined Solvay Pharmaceuticals as a Group leader in Pharmacology, specialized (1991) in Laboratory Animal Science (Utrecht University), and became Laboratory Animal Scientist and Animal Welfare Officer of Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Fort Dodge Animal Health Holland. He is chairman of the Microsurgical Developments Foundation and several IACUCs. From 1997 until 2012, he was appointed professor with a special chair in Microsurgery and Experimental Technique in Laboratory Animals at the Groningen Centre for Drug Research, Department of Biomonitoring & Sensoring, University Centre for Pharmacy, University of Groningen. He is CEO of 3-R's Training Centre BV, and Director of the René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (www.rrssc.eu).Irene Cuesta Cobo earned a BSc in Biology and physiotherapy, and an MSc in manual therapy at the University of Jaén (Spain). She worked at the department of physiology at the same university on an in-vivo assay with gliomas in rats and subsequently, at the Laboratory of CAR Madrid to analyse top athletes' blood samples. She is a senior instructor at RRSSC.Edwin Spoelstra earned an MSc in Pharmacy and specialised stereotaxic surgery and microdialysis in the rat. He developed several techniques in mice and spent the last ten years on catheter design and blood-sampling.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026119292110168
Author(s):  
Mohamed Hosney ◽  
Abeer M. Badr ◽  
Sohair R. Fahmy ◽  
Ahmed Afifi ◽  
Vera Baumans ◽  
...  

Cairo University was the first academic institution in Egypt to establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), as mandated by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Animal-based research should be performed in accordance with international regulations to monitor the humane care and use of the laboratory animals. Until 2018, the formal training of researchers in the appropriate and correct methods of animal handling during sampling and administration, as well as their husbandry demands, was an uncommon practice in Egypt. In 2018, the Egyptian Association for Animal Research Advancement (EAARA) organised the first international course in laboratory animal science (LAS), in collaboration with Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, to raise researchers’ awareness and increase their knowledge of the principles that govern the humane use and care of laboratory animals. A total of 26 researchers from a number of fields (veterinary medicine, dentistry, science, medicine, pharmacy and agriculture) enrolled in the course. In the responses to the post-course questionnaire, 24 (92.3%) participants stated that the principles of animal welfare (Three Rs) were well explained. In addition, 18 (69%) participants found that the course improved their skills in animal sampling and handling. Of the 26 participants, 22 (84.6%) became aware of their responsibility towards their experimental animals and agreed that the different methods of euthanasia were well explained. In conclusion, the general assessment of the course revealed a positive outcome regarding the culture of animal care; the course was repeated a year later, and several participants were enlisted as trainers in this second course.


ILAR Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M Kurtz ◽  
William P Feeney

Abstract For more than 50 years, the research community has made strides to better determine the nutrient requirements for many common laboratory animal species. This work has resulted in high-quality animal feeds that can optimize growth, maintenance, and reproduction in most species. We have a much better understanding of the role that individual nutrients play in physiological responses. Today, diet is often considered as an independent variable in experimental design, and specialized diet formulations for experimental purposes are widely used. In contrast, drinking water provided to laboratory animals has rarely been a consideration in experimental design except in studies of specific water-borne microbial or chemical contaminants. As we advance in the precision of scientific measurements, we are constantly discovering previously unrecognized sources of experimental variability. This is the nature of science. However, science is suffering from a lack of experimental reproducibility or replicability that undermines public trust. The issue of reproducibility/replicability is especially sensitive when laboratory animals are involved since we have the ethical responsibility to assure that laboratory animals are used wisely. One way to reduce problems with reproducibility/replicability is to have a strong understanding of potential sources of inherent variability in the system under study and to provide “…a clear, specific, and complete description of how the reported results were reached [1].” A primary intent of this review is to provide the reader with a high-level overview of some basic elements of laboratory animal nutrition, methods used in the manufacturing of feeds, sources of drinking water, and general methods of water purification. The goal is to provide background on contemporary issues regarding how diet and drinking water might serve as a source of extrinsic variability that can impact animal health, study design, and experimental outcomes and provide suggestions on how to mitigate these effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Cacciamali ◽  
Chiara Romano ◽  
Martina Angela Checco ◽  
Riccardo Villa

Pathogens present in the environment are the biggest source of diseases and epidemics in the breeding of laboratory animals. The presence of microorganisms, in fact, can critically influence the animal health status and consequently the validity and reproducibility of experimental data. In accordance with the 3Rs principle, this study fits into the Refinement and Reduction concepts. The development of a health surveillance plan on environmental material from animal housing would have an important impact not only on maintaining an adequate state of health and on the generation of quality experimental data, but also on reducing the number of animals to be sacrificed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Massoomeh Hedayati ◽  
Aldrin Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Javad Maghsoodi Tilaki

There is continuous debate on the impact of house quality on residents’ health and well-being. Good living environment improves health, and fear of crime is recognised as a mediator in the relationship between physical environment and health. Since minimal studies have investigated the relationship, this study aims to examine the impact of the house quality on fear of crime and health. A total of 230 households from a residential neighbourhood in Malaysia participated in the study. Using structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that housing quality and fear of crime can account for a proportion of the variance in residents’ self-rated health. However, there is no significant relationship between housing quality and fear of crime. Results also show that fear of crime does not mediate the relationship between housing quality and health. This study suggests that the environment-fear relationship should be re-examined theoretically.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-173
Author(s):  
Dinesh Kumar Kushwaha ◽  
◽  
Dilbagh Panchal ◽  
Anish Sachdeva ◽  
◽  
...  

Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is popular and versatile approach applicable to risk assessment and safety improvement of a repairable engineering system. This method encompasses various fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, paper mill, thermal power industry, software industry, services, security etc. in terms of its application. In general, FMEA is based on Risk Priority Number (RPN) score which is found by product of probability of Occurrence (O), Severity of failure (S) and Failure Detection (D). As human judgement is approximate in nature, the accuracy of data obtained from FMEA members depend on degree of subjectivity. The subjective knowledge of members not only contains uncertainty but hesitation too which in turn, affect the results. Fuzzy FMEA considers uncertainty and vagueness of the data/ information obtained from experts. In order to take into account, the hesitation of experts and vague concept, in the present work we propose integrated framework based on Intuitionistic Fuzzy- Failure Mode Effect Analysis (IF-FMEA) and IF-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (IF-TOPSIS) techniques to rank the listed failure causes. Failure cause Fibrizer (FR) was found to be the most critical failure cause with RPN score 0.500. IF-TOPSIS has been implemented within IF-FMEA to compare and verify ranking results obtained by both the IF based approaches. The proposed method was presented with its application for examining the risk assessment of cutting system in sugar mill industry situated in western Uttar Pradesh province of India. The result would be useful for the plant maintenance manager to fix the best maintenance schedule for improving availability of cutting system.


Author(s):  
No Suk Ki ◽  
Chung Ja Ahn ◽  
Dai Ha Koh ◽  
Jung Sang Lee ◽  
Yoo Yong Lee ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 132-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A.L. Bayne

The increasing emphasis on the provision of environmental enrichment to laboratory animals, vis-à-vis the USDA Animal Welfare Regulations, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NRC 1996), and a potential forthcoming policy from the USDA on the subject, can be difficult to accommodate in a toxicology research environment. A summary will be provided of current requirements and recommendations. Then, strategies for meeting regulatory requirements will be described for non-rodent animals used in toxicology research. These strategies will address methods of both social enrichment, such as pair or group housing, as well as non-social enrichment, such as cage furniture, food enrichments, and toys. In addition, the value of positive interactions with staff (e.g., through training paradigms or socialization programs) will also be discussed. Apparent in the discussion of these strategies will be an overarching recognition of the necessity to avoid introducing confounding variables into the research project and to avoid compromising animal health. The roles of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the attending veterinarian in helping scientists balance animal well-being, the scientific enterprise and the regulatory environment will be described.


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