| dc.description.abstract | The need for laboratory animals for the use of research is generally acknowledged by society. However, the use of animals for biomedical research has been a topic of debate for many years and raises ethical and moral concerns. An increasing demand for high standard animal models has led to guidelines and research focusing on or taking into account laboratory animal welfare and the quality of animal research and hereby also the development of the three R’s: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. The three R’s are used in many countries and are incorporated into legislation and guidelines. This master thesis will focus on Refinement and provides an overview of the housing conditions of several countries/continents for the most commonly used laboratory animals (e.g. mice, rats, guinea pigs and non-human primates). By using legal documents of Europe, The United States, United Kindom, Australia and Canada as well as scientific research, well balanced standards and objective criteria regarding housing conditions and housing environment for laboratory animals are formed. Criteria concerning the micro-environment are given which includes cleaning routines, cage and space requirements, floors, bedding and nesting material, enrichment and social housing. Requirements for the macro-environment include temperature, ventilation, illumination, noise and humidity. Throughout this thesis it should become clear that each component of the micro- and macro-environment are very important to the health and welfare of the animals and therefore can have a large influence on the quality of life. Furthermore, each component should be carefully chosen/designed with consideration of the other components (e.g. the choice of ventilation will influence the humidity levels or different cage designs will require different ventilation rates). Extra measures on how to improve the welfare of laboratory or captive non-human primates are deliberated in the discussion due to the high cognitive capacities and sentiency of certain primate species which makes it difficult to house them. | |
