Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare

Our research group is doing research, education and training, dissemination and advice and assistance in the fields of laboratory animal science, laboratory animal welfare, and comparative medicine. We have a strong focus on the 3Rs – the Refinement, Reduction and Replacement of laboratory animal experimentation, as well as on ensuring the highest possible validity and quality of animal experimentation.

Research

We are working within four specific focus areas, as outlined below:

Minimizing pain and discomfort in rodent models of the highest severity classification

In the European framework for severity classification of animal experiments, many animal studies are classified as mild – the lowest rating on the scale. For these cases, the ethical aspects relate more to compromising he animal’s integrity rather than the impact on their welfare. However, a limited number of rodents experience the highest degree of severity and suffering, when they are used as models for burdensome human diseases.

 

 

What we do in ongoing studies

• refine and improve methods for recognizing, assessing, and alleviating pain and stress.
• refine experimental procedures for anaesthesia, analgesia, experimental surgery, blood samplings and injections, with a special focus on optimizing animal models of moderate to high severity, increasing both welfare of the animals and validity of the models 

Improvement of animal models through microbiota techniques

Within many research areas it is difficult to reproduce studies and to translate the results into therapies for human patients. This - by far - constitutes the largest waste of animal lives in preclinical research. This is particularly rooted in the lack of a natural gut microbiome and pathogen exposure in the clean rodent barrier facilities which have resulted in divergent microbiomes among mice from different facilities, and limited ability to predict complex immune responses of humans. We aim to reduce variation and increase precision and validity in animal studies by addressing these issues of our modern-day rodent facilities.

 

 

What we do in ongoing studies

• make laboratory rodents more human-like by humanizing their diet and microbiota-host interactions.
• reduce groups sizes in rodent studies by finding ways to incorporate the microbiota of the animals into study design and evaluation.

Leveraging the power of meta-analysis to replace redundant animal experiments

With millions of biomedical studies being published every year, there is a vast ocean of pre-existent preclinical data. Re-use and repurposing of this data is an extremely underutilized resource. A study is carried out and its results are published, never to be touched again. This is a shame, since many questions that we may ask around laboratory animal experimentation can be answered without sacrificing any animals. Instead, we could often apply meta-analytical techniques for evidence synthesis and generate an answer to a new question using these old, published, studies. Not only are we replacing animal experiments, but we are generating much stronger answers, combining evidence from dozens of studies and hundreds, if not thousands, of animals.

Using meta-analytical methods, we can combine evidence from multiple studies, to produce a much stronger evidence base also for answering new questions. When the results from the individual studies are inconsistent, we can dispel ambiguity – producing a clear answer using data from all the animals sacrificed in the individual studies.

 

 

What we do in ongoing studies

• develop an already internationally recognized hub for meta-analysis of preclinical studies
• increase international collaboration with similar hubs for meta-analysis
• develop new methodologies and tools for ever-refined meta-analytical evidence synthesis
• incorporate recently developed machine learning tools for handling larger datasets and an increased level of automation
  
  

Animal-centric handling and housing of laboratory animals

We aim to promote Culture of Care that supports a compassionate and respectful approach to animal care and welfare, while also being mindful of the well-being of the animal care staff. We will expand the knowledge on implementation and use of animal welfare enhancing methods for handling and housing laboratory animals through the entire life span of each animal. Hence, we aim to develop, test and disseminate housing systems including colony-housing that will contribute to better animal welfare. We will implement and further develop handling- and training methods and protocols that will promote enhanced animal welfare during daily husbandry as well as experimental procedures.

Refined housing and handling are important factors to prioritize, as they will have a positive effect on animal welfare, quality of research data and the overall validity of animal models.

 

 

What we do in ongoing studies

• expand the knowledge on operant training in pigs for voluntary blood sampling
• provide training protocols for socialization of rats in colony housing ensuring that the rats will approach the handler voluntarily and without fear or hesitation
• increase knowledge on how to socialize mice in colony housing to ensure that the mice will approach the handler voluntarily and without fear or hesitation
• continuously improve our own standards and develop a Culture of Care, where our animal handling and husbandry are better than what is required by law and the staff and researchers have an animal-centric approach to our animals.
• promote interdisciplinary collaboration and ensure that all good ideas for refined housing and husbandry are taken seriously and tested in a collaborative effort between animal care staff and researchers. 

Teaching and training

Our teaching and training activities are designed to contribute to the optimal training of researchers, animal care staff and others involved in working with laboratory animals at the university, in Denmark and the rest of the world.

We offer accredited courses in laboratory animal science on EU Function A, B and D levels for staff on all levels working with animal experimentation. Our accredited courses primarily cover the species-specific parts for rodents and pigs, and we also collaborate with other groups to cover other species-specific courses. We also offer education for full certification of designated veterinarians, according to the EU Directive.

Furthermore, we run and develop courses for continuing professional development, within laboratory animal science, laboratory animal welfare and comparative medicine, such as experimental design, animal training, anaesthesia, analgesia, and surgical techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

Group leader:
Professor Klas Abelson
Ridebanevej 9
1870 Frederiksberg C
Ph: +45 35 33 55 75 

Secretariat:
Helle Vinberg