Trimming Toenails Saves Mice
For mice in laboratories, ulcerative dermatitis is a common condition affecting their health and welfare. It is also often a death sentence, as the most common treatments are rarely effective.
Please see the below articles about Animals in Laboratories from past editions of the AWI Quarterly.
A Square Solution to Handling Mice
Mice are the most common animal used in research. Many routine procedures (including blood pressure measurement, injections, and blood collection) require the mouse to be restrained. As manual restraint can be stressful and traumatic, mice...
Researchers Recoil from Santa Cruz Biotech as Company Jettisons Its Goats and Rabbits
A firestorm has rained down on Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (SCBT)—long one of the world’s largest antibody producers—following a February 19, 2016, Nature article entitled “Thousands of goats and rabbits vanish from major biotech lab.”
Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals
AWI is pleased to announce publication of the tenth edition of Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals, our guide to the humane housing and handling of animals in research. AWI has produced editions of Comfortable Quarters...
Last of NIH Chimpanzees to Be Retired
On November 18, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it would retire all of its remaining chimpanzees used for research and relocate them to sanctuaries. In 2013, as a result of a report by...
Ethical Antibodies—Researchers Deciding that “Animal Welfare Matters”
On October 16, 2015, Alice Ra’anan and Bill Yates of the American Physiological Society published a blog post for Speaking of Research entitled “Caveat Emptor,” with the subtitle “A current USDA case involving a major...
Setting Standards: How Best to Meet the Needs of Nonhuman Primates in Research
As the USDA considers a Petition for Rulemaking to establish criteria to promote the psychological well-being of primates, a discussion concerning regulations based on “performance standards” as opposed to “engineering standards” is timely.
Animal Suffering Makes for Sloppy Science
A recent retraction of a paper describing a study involving squirrel monkeys at the now-closed New England National Primate Research Center (NENPRC) shows once again that poor animal welfare leads to poor science.
Testing Empathy While Showing None
An increasing number of scientists have been proposing that empathetic behaviors are not limited to human beings. They argue that animals are aware not only of themselves, but also of the emotional states of their...
AWI Announces 2015 Refinement and Enrichment Grant Awardees
AWI is dedicated to improving the care, housing and handling of animals in research facilities. From our earliest days, we have encouraged laboratory personnel to provide animals with comfortable housing and the opportunity to engage...