scholarly journals The Role of the Three Rs in Improving the Planning and Reproducibility of Animal Experiments

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smith ◽  
Lilley
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Reproducible Research ◽  
Scientific Quality ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Culture Of Care

Training in the design of animal experiments focuses all too often on those aspects which can be approached mathematically, such as the number of animals needed to deliver a robust result, allocation of group size, and techniques such as randomization, blocking and statistical analysis. Important as they are, these are only a small part of the process of planning animal experiments. Additional key elements include refinements of housing, husbandry and procedures, health and safety, and attention at all stages to animal welfare. Advances in technology and laboratory animal science have led to improvements in care and husbandry, better provision of anesthetics and analgesics, refined methods of drug administration, greater competence in welfare assessment and application of humane endpoints. These improvements require continual dialogue between scientists, facility managers and technical staff, a practice that is a key feature of what has become known as the culture of care. This embodies a commitment to improving animal welfare, scientific quality, staff care and transparency for all stakeholders. Attention to both the physical and mental health of all those directly or indirectly involved in animal research is now an important part of the process of planning and conducting animal experiments. Efforts during the last 30 years to increase the internal and external validity of animal experiments have tended to concentrate on the production of guidelines to improve the quality of reporting animal experiments, rather than for planning them. Recently, comprehensive guidelines for planning animal studies have been published, to redress this imbalance. These will be described in this paper. Endorsement of this overarching influence of the Three R concept, by all the stakeholders, will not only reduce animal numbers and improve animal welfare, but also lead to more reliable and reproducible research which should improve translation of pre-clinical studies into tangible clinical benefit.

scholarly journals Applying the 3Rs: A Case Study on Evidence and Perceptions Relating to Rat Cage Height in the UK

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1104
Author(s):  
Hibba Mazhary ◽  
Penny Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Laboratory Rats ◽  
Code Of Practice ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Welfare Changes

This article investigates the barriers to implementing higher caging in animal research establishments in the UK. The use of animals in research and testing in the UK is regulated by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, which sets out how animal experiments must be licensed and regulated. Within this, the Code of Practice currently allows laboratory rats to be housed in cages that are 20 cm high, even though adults can rear up to 30 cm. Most adult rats therefore cannot stand upright in ‘standard’ cages. We found that the main factors hindering the implementation of higher caging were classified into five different groups; health and safety, financial, animal welfare, scientific, and ‘human’. Suggestions to overcome these barriers are provided, as well as alternative animal welfare changes that can be put into place. We conclude that much of the desired evidence for moving to higher cages is already available, and therefore the focus should be on education and improving access to the existing evidence, in order to encourage facilities to work around existing financial and health and safety concerns.

scholarly journals Improving culture of care through maximising learning from observations and events: Addressing what is at fault

2021 ◽  
pp. 002367722110371
Author(s):  
Sally Robinson ◽  
Wesley White ◽  
John Wilkes ◽  
Catherine Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Positive Culture ◽  
Scientific Quality ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Culture Of Care ◽  
Systematic Process ◽  
Animal Care

The term ‘culture of care’ in the context of using animals for scientific purpose describes the culture in organisations that provides support to staff to strive for continuous improvement in: • animal care and welfare; • support and recognition of staff involved in the animal care and use programme; • scientific quality; • openness and transparency. We developed a systematic process for reporting observations and events that have the potential to help with continuous learning, improving animal welfare and supporting staff. The process took learning from the safety, health and environment arena on accident prevention. The two key aspects were (a) the systematic logging of observations and events; and (b) the learning approach to following up on observations. Underpinning our systematic process is the ‘Learning from Observations and Events Log’. Reported observations and events can relate to positive practices, general observations as well as near misses. We created an environment to promote continuous improvement for both animals and staff by recognising, rewarding and sharing good practice, as well as where near misses are openly reported and learnt from. Supporting animal welfare, staff welfare, improving scientific quality and transparency are the four key pillars of a positive culture of care. We recognised early on that using a system and learning approach to follow up on observations and events rather than a people and blame approach was key to developing open reporting and a positive culture. In the systems approach, errors are consequences rather than causes, having their origins in systemic factors.

The Quality of Reporting Raises Questions on the Experimental Validity of Animal Studies Conducted in India and Sri Lanka: Preliminary Analysis of a Systematic Survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Vijay Pal Singh ◽  
Ayushi Jain ◽  
Shubhra Gupta ◽  
Manudharshy Vijayakumar ◽  
Kunal Pratap ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Sample Size Calculation ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Systematic Survey ◽  
In Vivo Experiments

The quality of animal experiments in terms of appropriate reporting is a concern, particularly with regard to their validity and the recording of the measures taken to reduce various types of bias. A systematic survey of 1371 and 236 publications from India and Sri Lanka, respectively, which were published between 1905 and 2017 and indexed in NCBI-PubMed, Cinhal, MEDLINE and Scopus, was carried out. The level of detail in the descriptions of animals used and the measures taken to reduce bias were analysed in each article. Selected parameters from the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, such as age, weight, sex, sample size calculation, blinding and randomisation were considered. The findings revealed poor reporting standards in animal experiments carried out in India and Sri Lanka, confirming the limited impact of the ARRIVE guidelines. These findings emphasise the urgent need for improvements in the peer review process, both prior to a study being set up and in the post-study reporting phase, and for more stringent adherence to the ARRIVE guidelines in the reporting of animal experiments.

scholarly journals Hypoxia and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Pregnancy Complications

Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang-Qun Hu ◽  
Lubo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Pregnancy Complications ◽  
Intrauterine Growth Restriction ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Causative Role ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Maternal Complications ◽  
Mitochondrial Ros ◽  
Subsequent Risk

Hypoxia is a common and severe stress to an organism’s homeostatic mechanisms, and hypoxia during gestation is associated with significantly increased incidence of maternal complications of preeclampsia, adversely impacting on the fetal development and subsequent risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Human and animal studies have revealed a causative role of increased uterine vascular resistance and placental hypoxia in preeclampsia and fetal/intrauterine growth restriction (FGR/IUGR) associated with gestational hypoxia. Gestational hypoxia has a major effect on mitochondria of uteroplacental cells to overproduce reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to oxidative stress. Excess mitochondrial ROS in turn cause uteroplacental dysfunction by damaging cellular macromolecules, which underlies the pathogenesis of preeclampsia and FGR. In this article, we review the current understanding of hypoxia-induced mitochondrial ROS and their role in placental dysfunction and the pathogenesis of pregnancy complications. In addition, therapeutic approaches selectively targeting mitochondrial ROS in the placental cells are discussed.

scholarly journals Does Employee Care Trigger Innovation Under a Healthy and Safe Working Environment? Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry in China

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Minghui Yang ◽  
Qian Lin ◽  
Petra Maresova
Keyword(s):  
Safety Management ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Pharmaceutical Firms ◽  
Corporate Ability ◽  
Safe Working

Sustainability of the workforce becomes a crucial issue, of which responsible care for employees can increase job satisfaction and human capital that impact corporate ability to absorb and generate new knowledge. Firms are obligated to provide a healthy and safe working environment for their employees, but it may in turn hinder innovation due to rigid and structured institutional regulations. Drawing on data of 308 China’s pharmaceutical firms from 2010 to 2017, we investigated whether employee care can trigger innovation under corporate adoption of the occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS). Our results suggest that both employee care and OHSMS adoption have a positive impact on innovation. Moreover, the positive relationship between employee care and innovation was more pronounced in firms that had adopted the OHSMS certification. These findings are valuable to policymakers and corporate managers in emerging economies through corroborating the important role of workforce sustainability in facilitating firm innovation.

scholarly journals Farm Animals Are Long Away from Natural Behavior: Open Questions and Operative Consequences on Animal Welfare

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 724
Author(s):  
Alberto Cesarani ◽  
Giuseppe Pulina
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Farm Animal ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Natural Behavior ◽  
Welfare Assessment ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Naive Approach

The concept of welfare applied to farm animals has undergone a remarkable evolution. The growing awareness of citizens pushes farmers to guarantee the highest possible level of welfare to their animals. New perspectives could be opened for animal welfare reasoning around the concept of domestic, especially farm, animals as partial human artifacts. Therefore, it is important to understand how much a particular behavior of a farm animal is far from the natural one of its ancestors. This paper is a contribution to better understand the role of genetics of the farm animals on their behavior. This means that the naïve approach to animal welfare regarding returning animals to their natural state should be challenged and that welfare assessment should be considered.

Protecting the health and safety of the paramedic workforce in Australia: The role of cohort studies with new recruits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy C Reynolds ◽  
Meagan E Crowther ◽  
Sally A Ferguson ◽  
Jessica L Paterson ◽  
Chris Howie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Studies ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
New Recruits

scholarly journals Microbial-Driven Stabilisation of Archaeological Iron Artefacts

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-292
Author(s):  
Sarah James ◽  
Edith Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Chloride Content ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Passivation Layers ◽  
Archaeological Iron ◽  
Initial Results ◽  
Sulphur Species ◽  
Partial Success ◽  
Made In

The instability of iron artefacts is rooted in salt contamination during burial and damages associated with exposure to alternative oxygen levels and high relative humidity once excavated. While a combination of chemical and mechanical treatments is utilised to remove the harmful ions (chlorides, sulphur species) and excess bulky corrosion products, these methods can be hazardous for conservation staff’s health, have limited success, or require extensive treatment times. Bio-based treatments provide a potentially greener alternative for removing damaging corrosion and creating biogenic mineral passivation layers, thus remediating concerns over costs, duration, and health and safety. Pseudomonas putida mt-2 (KT2440) is capable of utilising iron under certain conditions and for phosphating mild steel; however, applications have not been made in the cultural heritage sector. To address the potential of using bacteria for conservation purposes, Pseudomonas was assessed for both the bioremediation of salt contaminates and the production of a passivation layer suitable for iron artefacts, with specific conservation concerns in mind. Key factors for optimisation include the role of agitation, chloride content, and oxygen content on bacterial growth and biomineralisation. The initial results indicate a growth preference, not reliance, for NaCl and agitation with partial success of bioconversion of a mineral source.

scholarly journals Including the animal standpoint in critical public relations research

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-161
Author(s):  
Núria Almiron ◽  
Laura Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Essential Step ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Theoretical Paper ◽  
Short Explanation

In this paper we argue that adopting critical animal studies perspectives in critical public relations can not only be very fruitful, but that it is also a necessity if the aims of the latter are to be achieved. To this end, this text introduces the challenges and opportunities that the field of critical animal studies brings to critical public relations studies. First, a short explanation of what critical animal studies is and why it can contribute to critical public relations studies is provided. Then the main fields of research where this contribution can be most relevant are discussed, including ethics, discourse studies and political economy. The final aim of this theoretical paper is to expand research within the field of critical public relations by including a critical animal studies approach. Eventually, the authors suggest that embracing the animal standpoint in critical public relations is an essential step to furthering the study of power, hegemony, ideology, propaganda or social change and to accomplishing the emancipatory role of research.

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