FELASA recommendations for the health monitoring of mouse, rat, hamster, guinea pig and rabbit colonies in breeding and experimental units

Abstract

The microbiological quality of experimental animals can critically influence animal welfare and the validity and reproducibility of research data. It is therefore important for breeding and experimental facilities to establish a laboratory animal health monitoring (HM) programme as an integrated part of any quality assurance system. FELASA has published recommendations for the HM of rodent and rabbit colonies in breeding and experimental units (Nicklas et al. Laboratory Animals, 2002), with the intention of harmonizing HM programmes. As stated in the preamble, these recommendations need to be adapted periodically to meet current developments in laboratory animal medicine. Accordingly, previous recommendations have been revised and shall be replaced by the present recommendations. These recommendations are aimed at all breeders and users of laboratory mice, rats, Syrian hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits as well as diagnostic laboratories. They describe essential aspects of HM, such as the choice of agents, selection of animals and tissues for testing, frequency of sampling, commonly used test methods, interpretation of results and HM reporting. Compared with previous recommendations, more emphasis is put on the role of a person with sufficient understanding of the principles of HM, opportunistic agents, the use of sentinel animals (particularly under conditions of cage-level containment) and the interpretation and reporting of HM results. Relevant agents, testing frequencies and literature references are updated. Supplementary information on specific agents and the number of animals to be monitored and an example of a HM programme description is provided in the appendices.

Non-invasive instant genotyping of fluorescently labeled transgenic mice

“…They were supplied with a standard breeding diet (V1126, Ssniff Spezialdiaeten GmbH, Germany) and tap water ad libitum. Animals were free of pathogens according to FELASA recommendations and health status was monitored quarterly (Mähler et al, 2014). All animal experiments were discussed and approved by the institutional ethics committee in accordance with Good Scientific Practice (GSP) guidelines and national legislation.…”

Intestinal Epithelial Cell Tyrosine Kinase 2 Transduces IL-22 Signals To Protect from Acute Colitis

“…C57BL/6N WT controls were kept under identical housing conditions. Mice were frequently tested to be specific pathogenfree according to the recommendations of the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Association, and they were additionally monitored to be norovirus negative (18) …”

On the importance of health monitoring

“…Many recommendations have been published in the past, but it is essential to update recommendations and to adapt them to current developments in laboratory animal research. In this issue three publications [1][2][3] are related to animal health and monitoring and therefore underline the importance of issues related to health.…”

“…The FELASA working party report by Ma¨hler (convenor) and colleagues updated health monitoring recommendations for mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits in breeding and research facilities 1 . It is a comprehensive report that addresses important points in animal welfare, therefore the integrality of the manuscript including appendices was printed.…”