CRC Press Animal-centric Care and Management: Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research

Product Description The concept of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) has been used as a framework for improving the welfare of laboratory animals for the last half century. By establishing an animal-centric view on housing and management, Animal-centric Care and Management: Enhancing Refinement in Biomedical Research takes Russell and Burch’s definition of Refinement as "elimination of inhumanities" and goes further. Rather than fitting animals into experimental conditions, it encourages readers to adjust conditions to better meet the behavioral, emotional, physical, and physiological needs and preferences of the animals. The team of expert authors, from the fields of laboratory animal science, ethology, biology as well as animal training, provide ideas for creating housing conditions and handling procedures that induce, to the best of current abilities and knowledge, a long-term positive state of mind in the animals under our care. This book is written for animal caretakers, animal health technicians, researchers, animal facility managers, laboratory animal veterinarians, and anyone who engages in work with living experimental animals or is interested in the continuous improvement of laboratory animal welfare. This interdisciplinary guide will act as a catalyst, resulting in multiple viewpoints and fields collaborating to optimize laboratory animal welfare. Review "Animal-Centric Care and Management by Dorte Bratbo Sørensen, Sylvie Cloutier and Brianna Gaskill is a book that will easily fit into any library for training in animal science. It does a convincing job arguing for a new culture in animal science where researchers and caregivers cooperate to adjust experimental conditions to a species rather than require a species to adapt to the study conditions. It is suitable for any stakeholder working with live animals in science. The content is helpful to new personnel in the field, but also for experienced personnel, especially decision makers for equipment purchases, facility design, standard operating procedure review and development, or protocol reviews. It is my position that a manager would do well to have all their staff read this book... Animal welfare in the years ahead will hopefully be characterized with the quote “we can aim at well-being rather than the absence of distress”. This book will help get us there. I hope the current and subsequent generation of animal users look back and wonder how we could have done this work without that perspective. In short, please thoroughly digest this book; you and the animals you work with will be better off for it." Jason Allen, CALAS-ACSAL Member's Magazine, VOL 54, NO 5 • SPRING 2021 "By introducing innovative and advanced ways of housing and caring for laboratory animals, this long-overdue book enables a much needed shift in animal research from a culture of exploitation to a culture of care, where research animals are treated as patients rather than mere measuring devices." Prof. Dr. Hanno Würbel, Division of Animal Welfare, Veterinary Public Health Institute, University of Bern "The book is comprehensive, well- written and exceedingly well laid out. The principles of Animal-centric careand management may sound a new idea but for many animal care staff it is what we have been doing for manyyears, although there is always room for new ideas. However, the concept of designing experiments studiesto consider the animals needs first rather than the scientific needs is something is entirely new. Althoughonly the common animals are covered, the principles are applicable to all species used in research, althoughsome in depth knowledge of some of the more unusual species needs to be acquired. I commend this book to you and would recommend that it is made available to all staff from the most junior technician to the head of teams using animals in research." Dr. Jas Barley, April 2021, Animal Technology and Welfare journal (IAT) "The style of writing throughout the b