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Session B4: Animal Welfare: Guidelines and BeyondChairs: Jean-Marc Spieser (France) and David Anderson (UK) B4: Three R Alternatives Provided by the European Pharmacopoeia--Are They Used in Practice? The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.) considers the implementation of the Three R concept as one of its major goals. In the last decade, many monographs have been reviewed and revised with the aim of introducing the Three R's. However, the Ph.Eur. Commission can only remove tests requiring animals after it has received satisfactory evidence that the biological method may be revised or replaced for a given production without risk to the patients' safety and/or to the quality of the medicine in question. Several alternative methods were introduced recently into the Ph.Eur. Whereas the legal provisions to introduce alternatives in routine batch control now exist; in many cases, there is evidence that so far not much use is made of these possibilities in practice. This presentation tries to analyze the situation for veterinary biologicals and gives recommendations for improving the situation. B4: Revision of Council of Europe Convention Ets 123 Guidelines for the Accommodation and Care of Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes Within the 43 member states of the Council of Europe, Appendix A of Convention ETS123 provides guidance on the standards of accommodation and care to be provided for animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes. At a meeting of the Parties to the Convention in 1997, a resolution providing additional guidance on accommodation and care was adopted. At the same meeting, it was agreed that, as scientific knowledge and experience had progressed since adoption of ETS123 in 1986, a Working Party should be convened to consider the revision of Appendix A. The Working Party first met in January 1999, and since then, there have been a number of Working Party meetings, and a number of Meetings of Expert Groups, who are tasked with producing guidelines incorporating species-specific needs. The Expert Groups have drafted proposals for the accommodation and care of rodents, rabbits, dogs, cats, ferrets, farm animals, birds, amphibia, reptiles, and fish. These proposals will complement the general principles of accommodation and care included in the General section of Appendix A. The presentation will report on progress of this review and on the principles adopted by the Groups of Experts during the drafting of their proposals. This comprehensive review has provided an opportunity to incorporate new ideas on housing and care based on scientific data and on best current practices. It is expected that these revisions will be used throughout the scientific community to inform accommodation and care practices for animals used for scientific purposes. B4: The Revision of European Housing Guidelines for Laboratory Animals: Expectations from the Point of View of Animal Welfare The European legislation for the protection of laboratory animals calls for housing conditions that enable the animals to fulfill their basic ethological and physiological needs, and thus, enables them to exert their locomotive and social behaviors and to engage in species-specific, meaningful activity. However, currently the concrete housing guidelines depicted in the Appendices of the very same legal documents are inadequate to meet these requirements, and for many commonly used species, there are no housing guidelines at all. In recognition of these deficiencies, the Council of Europe has initiated a revision of the existing housing guidelines. From the point of view of animal welfare, adequate housing conditions are essential for an animal's wellbeing; and it is unacceptable if the animals' basic needs are restricted due to experimental protocols or even financial constraints. Procedural protocols should be changed to ensure that the animals can engage in their species-specific behaviors. Currently, legal issues on the level of the Council of Europe and of the European Union are standing in the way of expeditious revision of the housing guidelines. These obstacles must be overcome, and preparations should be made on the national level to adopt and implement the new guidelines without delay. B4: The Environmental Enrichment Committee Both The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the Canadian Council on Animal Care and Use of Experimental Animals specify that suitable enrichment and social interaction with con-specifics should be considered when planning adequate housing for all laboratory animal species. In response to this dictum, the University of Notre Dame established an Environmental Enrichment Committee to develop, implement, and assess an overall enrichment program that encompasses all species housed at the Freimann Life Science Center. Although many enrichment strategies have been used prior to the formation of the committee, having the facility director formally authorize a committee gave the members credibility with the Principle Investigators, resources for program development, and time allotments for meetings and observations. The committee members began their assignment by defining the committee goals and responsibilities. Six categories for the enrichment strategies were established: social interaction, burrowing opportunities, perches and ramps, foraging opportunities, gnawing opportunities, and food treats. A program was developed to encompass the use of techniques within these categories with the animals that would benefit from them. Our experience is that the Environmental Enrichment Committee is an effective vehicle for the development and the implementation of enrichment strategies. B4: Refinement by an Adequate Pain Management Protocol: Report of the Working Group of the German Society of Laboratory Animal Science It was the task of the working group for anaesthesia and analgesia of the GV-SOLAS to make recommendations to researchers and representatives of authorities, as well, for pain treatment in common experimental procedures. The terms of pain, suffering, and harm, the physiology of pain, and the need for pain reduction are described. Special focus was placed on the influence of analgesics to experimental results. Therefore, the literature is reviewed concerning side effects of analgesics to physiological parameters, behavior, and pathophysiological patterns. The recommendations are organized into sections on pain management during general anaesthesia and postoperative or general pain management. We used an organ-specific approach to make these guidelines most useful and practicable. By selecting an organic system or an anatomic region, the user finds a table to choose the anatomic structure or the surgical approach. Examples of common experimental models and a characterization of pain quantity offer proposed adequate medications. We confined the number of substances in the main treatment plans to three, but other substances are listed. The authors hope that these recommendations help to refine use of laboratory animals.
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