/ News, Research / Christian Heuss
Award for animal care technicians working to reduce surplus laboratory animal numbers
The animal caretakers at the Department of Biomedicine at the Mattenstrasse site have succeeded in significantly reducing the number of surplus laboratory animals. After helping to devise breeding programs, raising awareness and improving the culture of communication between researchers and the animal facility, the team has now received the Swiss 3RCC Culture of Care Award in recognition of this successful work.
The breeding process inevitably results in laboratory animals that can never be used for experimental research due to complex breeding programs and laws of genetics that require a certain number of breeding animals. Based on the 3R principle of "replacement, reduction and refinement", however, researchers are obliged to reduce the number of laboratory animals as far as possible. This includes improved breeding strategies, cryopreservation of animal lines not currently needed, and close coordination with other researchers concerning the use of the animals.
Seeing the need for action, Angelika Offinger, head of the animal facility at the Department of Biomedicine (DBM) Mattenstrasse site, started working with her team one year ago to devise ways to reduce the number of breeding animals at the facility. “For animal caretakers, the humane killing of surplus animals is always difficult,” says Dr. Anne Zintzsch, animal welfare officer at the University of Basel.