Animal welfare

Animal facility staff

Our animal care team are experienced, skilled, and empathetic. They tend to the daily needs of all our animals and are the eyes and ears of the researchers in our facilities. They give invaluable advice to researchers at all levels across the University of Dundee. We encourage our staff to keep learning through the Institute of Animal Technology (IAT) and other recognised channels. These include seminars, training courses, modules, and conferences. They help ensure our staff are working to the latest and highest standards.

We have many staff who care for animals, help with experiments, and train staff. But, we also have team members who handle the regulatory, financial, and administrative tasks that are key to running the facility each day. Discussions with other animal facilities across the UK is also encouraged, to share best practice. 

Our highly skilled animal care staff look after our animals 365 days a year. This includes all major holiday periods including Christmas day and New Years Day.

We also have staff with specific roles mandated by ASPA. These include:

• a full-time Named Veterinarian Surgeon (NVS)
• two Named Animal Care and Welfare Officers (NACWO)
• a Named training and competency officer (NTCO)
• and a Named Information Officer (NIO), whose role is to share information about relevant species and the 3R’s

Animal care

At Dundee we are committed to high standards of animal welfare. We ensure that animals are housed so as to allow them to exhibit natural behaviours and we adapt our practices in the light of new information to find further ways to maintain their physical and mental health. Refining experimental procedures to reduce their impact on the animals is a priority. For example, by habituating animals to being handled so that they don’t need to be restrained for blood sampling. And, by using anaesthesia or painkillers for potentially painful techniques.

In Dundee, we are proud of the changes we are making. For example, we know rats are curious. So, we have made play pens for the animals to explore and play outside of their cages. We work to continuously improve housing enrichment to keep animals happy. We routinely use houses, swings, and foraging mix. We handle all our animals before experiments. This makes sure they are familiar with people. It reduces the stress of any needed procedures.

Housing

Our animals are in either a conventional open-top cage or, for genetically altered mice in breeding programs, an individually ventilated cage (IVC). These are housing units which each have their own air supply to maintain mice in an exceptionally clean, protected environment at the right temperature and humidity. This protects the mice from any unwanted microorganism /infection and so maintains the best animal health to preserve the integrity of the research. 

Safe environment

All animals are welfare checked at least twice daily and the food and water levels in the cage are checked at the same time. Rodents like to shred, burrow and nibble, so a range of items that let them do this will be added, such as cotton/paper, tunnels to run through and swings to hang from. They also like to hide inside small dark spaces. Their shelters are made of cardboard, or coloured, rather than clear plastic. This gives them the impression that they are hidden, while still allowing animal care staff to inspect them easily.

Handling of animals for inspections or procedures must always be performed using either the plastic tubes or cupped hands. This ensures the animals are handled within best practice guidelines gently with care, which makes them calm and more amenable to human interaction.

Record keeping

Each animal is assigned an identity number so that we can document any regulated procedures the animal receives as well as any veterinary treatment it receives should it show any signs of ill health.  Information is attached to each cage as a cage card and is recorded within a large database that is searchable to help with how we look after the animals, for example management of breeding colonies.