Many biomedical research studies use captive animals to model human health and disease. However, a surprising number of studies show that the biological systems of animals living in standard laboratory housing are abnormal. To make...
Regulatory requirements provide instructions on enrichment specifically for nonhuman primates, but we believe all animals can benefit from enrichment if it is structured for that species. Hired as the Director of Behavior Management and Environmental...
Laboratory animals experience a large amount of environmental stress. An animal’s environment can include both physiological and social stressors that may require an animal to adapt to maintain allostatic balance. For example, thermal stress can...
Score sheets are an essential tool of animal welfare. They allow transparent assessments to be made of animal health and behavior during animal experiments and they define interventions when deviations from normal status are detected...
The Humane Endpoints website (https://www.humane-endpoints.info/) provides information and training modules on how to recognize humane endpoints in laboratory animals. This helps to prevent further distress in the animals by removing the animals from the experiment...
The Scientific Committee of the Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association (Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Versuchstierkunde, SGV) reports on the Annual SGV Meeting held on 28 and 29 November 2017, at Technopark, Zürich, Switzerland. Feedback after the...
Animal welfare monitoring is an essential part of zoo management and a legal requirement in many countries. Historically, a variety of welfare audits have been proposed to assist zoo managers. Unfortunately, there are a number...
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums animal welfare strategy encourages zoos to integrate sound animal welfare principles into all activities and recommends assessment based on the Five Domains model of animal welfare. This model...
Boredom is likely to have adaptive value in motivating exploration and learning, and many animals may possess the basic neurological mechanisms to support it. Chronic inescapable boredom can be extremely aversive, and understimulation can harm...
While the international zoological community is committed to enhancing the welfare of individual animals, researchers have yet to take full advantage of the tools available for non-invasively tracking behavioural and physiological indicators of welfare. We...