动物实验中的兽医作用

实验动物是现代医学研究中的重要基础和条件,随着我国实验动物科学的迅速发展和实验动物和动物实验质和量的不断提高,对实验动物兽医的需求越来越大,对实验动物兽医的要求和期望也越来越高,本文简要阐述了兽医在动物实验中的作用.文章就实验动物兽医应该具备的资质、实验动物兽医的基本职责以及实验动物健康与兽医管理等方面进行了讨论,明确了实验动物兽医的各项基本职责及任务.兽医在实验动物的管理以及动物实验的过程中有着非常重要的作用,在动物实验中应充分发挥兽医的作用.     

The implications of microarray technology for animal use in scientific research

Microarray technology has the potential to affect the number of laboratory animals used, the severity of animal experiments, and the development of non-animal alternatives in several areas scientific research. Microarrays can contain hundreds or thousands of microscopic spots of DNA, immobilised on a solid support, and their use enables global patterns of gene expression to be determined in a single experiment. This technology is being used to improve our understanding of the operation of biological systems during health and disease, and their responses to chemical insults. Although it is impossible to predict with certainty any future trends regarding animal use, microarray technology might not initially reduce animal use, as is often claimed to be the case. The accelerated pace of research as a result of the use of microarrays could increase overall animal use in basic and applied biological research, by increasing the numbers of interesting genes identified for further analysis, and the number of potential targets for drug development. Each new lead will require further evaluation i n studies that could involve animals. In toxicity testing, microarray studies could lead to increases in animal studies, if further confirmatory and other studies are performed. However, before such technology can be used more extensively, several technical problems need to be overcome, and the relevance of the data to biological processes needs to be assessed. Were microarray technology to be used in the manner envisaged by its protagonists, there need to be efforts to increase the likelihood that its application will create new opportunities for reducing, refining and replacing animal use. This comment is a critical assessment of the possible implications of the application of microarray technology on animal experimentation in various research areas, and makes some recommendations for maximising the application of the Three Rs.     

Thirty years after Brambell: whither animal welfare science?

It has been just over 30 years since the Brambell Committee issued its clarion call for research on the welfare of animals used in agriculture. What progress has farm animal welfare science made in those 30 years, and what challenges will it face in the next 30? In this article, I discuss the ways in which the Brambell report, with its emphasis on behavioral needs and suffering, both propelled and constrained the development of animal welfare science. The role that economic factors play and the ways in which they have imposed other kinds of constraints on scientists working with farm animals are also mentioned. Despite these constraints, animal welfare science has contributed to a number of significant improvements in the welfare of farm animals. There is, however, a growing sense that animal welfare science has reached an impasse and that ethical and scientific questions about animal welfare have become hopelessly entangled. In this context, I address what I view to be the principal challenge facing farm animal welfare science, namely to move the issue of beyond suffering to an evaluation of broader quality-of-life questions and their application to improvements in welfare.     

'Wanted-standard guinea pigs': standardisation and the experimental animal market in Britain ca. 1919-1947

In 1942 a coalition of twenty scientific societies formed the Conference on the Supply of Experimental Animals (CSEA) in an attempt to pressure the Medical Research Council to accept responsibility for the provision of standardised experimental animals in Britain. The practice of animal experimentation was subject to State regulation under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876, but no provision existed for the provision of animals for experimental use. Consequently, day-to-day laboratory work was reliant on a commercial small animal market which had emerged to sustain the hobby of animal fancying. This paper explores how difficulties encountered in experimental practice within the laboratory led to the problematisation of biomedical science's reliance upon a commercial market for animals during the inter-war period. This is shown to have produced a crisis within animal reliant experimental science in the early 1940s which enabled the left-wing Association of Scientific Workers to cast science's reliance on a free market as economically inefficient and a threat to the reliability of British research. It is argued that the development of standard experimental animals in Britain was, therefore, embedded within the wider cultural, societal, political and economic national context of the time.     

Genetically modified laboratory animals--what welfare problems do they face?

In this article, we respond to public concern expressed about the welfare of genetically modified (GM) nonhuman animals. As a contribution to the debate on this subject, we attempt in this article to determine in what situations the practice of genetic modification in rodents may generate significant welfare problems. After a brief discussion of the principles of animal welfare, we focus on the problem of animal suffering and review some types of gene modifications likely to cause predictable welfare problems. In this article, we also consider suffering that may be involved in the process of generating GM animals. Finally, we discuss the role of GM animals in attempts to reduce, replace, and refine the use of animals in research.     

Recommendations for improving the home office project licence abstracts

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 prompted the Government to evaluate how public understanding about the use of animals in scientific research can be improved and how animal experimentation is regulated within the UK. This resulted in the publication of anonymous project licence abstracts. Here, the abstracts published between December 2004 and October 2005 have been evaluated, by using a scoring system which takes into account their content and format, in order to assess whether they provide information that will facilitate the increased implementation of reduction, refinement and replacement strategies. The potential impact of freely-available Home Office project licence abstracts on public attitudes to animal testing and on the quality of animal-based research, is also discussed. Although some abstracts scored well, in general, the abstracts were found to be severely lacking in detail about the welfare of experimental animals. Thus, the abstracts tend to present a distorted picture of animal-based research. Many abstracts lack the details which would reveal how the licensing criteria had been met. It is concluded that, in their current form, the project abstracts are not sufficiently informative. A number of recommendations are made, which address this problem.     

The Brazilian legal framework on the scientific use of animals

Brazil has an exceptionally dynamic research sector in Latin America in health, biotechnology, and pharmacology, backed by defined government policies on science and technology and a health research agenda focusing on important neglected diseases: malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, turberculosis, leprosy, and dengue. The Brazilian health research policy promotes partnerships and networks among scientists in academic institutions in both wealthy industrialized and disease-endemic countries, and in these efforts the government's guidelines for animal use in biomedical research are considered fundamental to guarantee both animal welfare and the quality of research. Given international discussions of animal experimentation regulations and guidelines, in this article we describe current Brazilian legislation governing the use of animals in scientific investigations. We conclude that, despite advances in the implementation of the 3Rs (reduction, refinement, replacement), the new regulatory framework does not sufficiently incorporate ethical considerations, lacking explicit reference to the 3Rs as well as measures for their full application. The more humane use of animals in research will depend on the approach adopted by Brazil's National Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation to promote the 3Rs and to improve internal regulations as well as data collection and analysis in research institutions. In Brazil as elsewhere, one of the greatest challenges to policymakers is to harmonize the myriad and intertwined legal provisions without hindering biomedical research.     

RNA药物的发展及其在水产上的应用

基于RNA的RNA干扰和基因组编辑技术被应用于许多领域.由于其作用的特异性,使RNA成为靶点药物的候选分子.基于RNA的疾病治疗药物的研发近年来有了迅速的发展.随着养殖业的发展,病害引起的损失日益严重.运用小分子RNA药物有效保护水产动物抵抗病毒、寄生虫等的危害的研究也取得了一些成果.综述了RNA干扰和CRISPR的作...     

浅论实验动物兽医的职责及实践

随着我国实验动物科学和动物试验的迅速发展,实验动物兽医的需求越来越大。实验动物兽医的角色多种多样,广义地讲可以是任何具有兽医资质且从事实验动物管理、繁育、疾病诊断防治、动物试验和研究的人员。通常实验动物兽医是指实验动物临床兽医或实验动物主管兽医。实验动物兽医的天职是确保动物的健康和福利,并支持高质量的动物试验研究。本文从实验动物兽医工作的必要性、实验动物兽医的发展、实验动物兽医的资质、职责等几个方面,并结合合同外包研发机构中兽医的实践阐述了实验动物兽医的工作性质、任务和内容。     

Apoptosis and its functional significance in molluscs

Programmed cell death leading to apoptosis is essential for normal development and homeostasis in plants and throughout the animal kingdom. Although there are differences in apoptotic mechanisms between lower animals and vertebrates, crucial biochemical components of the programmed cell death pathways remained remarkably conserved throughout evolution. Despite decades of studies on the neurobiology and development of mollusks, comparatively little is known about the mechanisms of apoptosis in this phylum. In this review, an attempt is made to summarize data obtained on mollusks so far, and to discuss the molecular mechanisms, the functional and ecological significance of apoptosis and the advantages of snail preparations as tools for programmed cell death research. A definitive comparison of the data obtained on mollusks with those obtained on the more widely studied vertebrates, will contribute to the better understanding of the apoptotic process in general and of its evolutionary development.     

Fundamental training for individuals involved in the care and use of laboratory animals: a review and update of the 1991 NRC Core Training Module

Public trust demands that individuals who do research, testing, or teaching with animals use humane, ethical, and scientifically sound methods. Furthermore, the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy require research institutions to provide basic training and to ensure that anyone who cares for and/or works with laboratory animals has the appropriate training or experience relevant to their job responsibilities. Institutions accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International must also provide training programs and ensure the qualifications of personnel. The primary goal of this training is to provide individuals with basic knowledge and to reinforce attitudes and behaviors that help to ensure humane animal care and use. This article provides an overview of the core training module outline and content from the 1991 report of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, Education and Training in the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals: A Guide for Developing Institutional Programs, as well as pertinent updates for introducing personnel to information regarding the care and use of laboratory animals. Both mandatory and suggested training topics are reviewed, including relevant regulations and standards, ethical considerations, humane methods of animal experimentation and maintenance, and other pertinent topics. Although the fundamental training course content and delivery will vary depending on the nature and complexity of an institution's animal care and use program, this basic training provides the foundation for more in-depth training programs and supports humane and ethical animal care and use.     

On Hans,Zou and the others: wonder animals and the question of animal intelligence in early twentieth-century France

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the advent of widespread pet ownership was accompanied by claims of heightened animal abilities. Psychical researchers investigated many of these claims, including animal telepathy and ghostly apparitions. By the beginning of the twentieth century, news of horses and dogs with the ability to read and calculate fascinated the French public and scientists alike. Amidst questions about the justification of animal cruelty in laboratory experiments, wonder animals came to represent some extraordinary possibilities associated with their kind. Psychologists speculated on the feats of wonder animals. They considered the possibility that these animals shared consciousness and intelligence with humans, and that—if confirmed—their alleged amazing abilities could lead to a new understanding of cognition for all animals. This article focuses on the few years during which claims of wonder animals occupied a significant place in French psychology and psychical research. It argues that as explanations involving deception or unconscious cues gained increased acceptance, the interest in wonder animals soon led to a backlash in comparative psychology that had repercussions for all animals, particularly those used in experimentation, in that it contributed to the decline of research addressing cognitive abilities in non-human species.     

Extracellular ATP: a potential regulator of plant cell death

Adenosine 5′‐triphosphate (ATP) has been regarded as an intracellular energy currency molecule for many years. In recent decades, it has been determined that ATP is released into the extracellular milieu by animal, plant and microbial cells. In animal cells, this extracellular ATP (eATP) functions as a signalling compound to mediate many cellular processes through its interaction with membrane‐associated receptor proteins. It has also been reported that eATP is a signalling molecule required for the regulation of plant growth, development and responses to environmental stimuli. Recently, the first plant receptor for eATP was identified in Arabidopsis thaliana. Interestingly, some studies have shown that eATP is of particular importance in the control of plant cell death. In this review article, we summarize and discuss the theoretical and experimental advances that have been made with regard to the roles and mechanisms of eATP in plant cell death. We also make an attempt to address some speculative aspects to help develop and expand future research in this area.     

Computerized ordering of experimental animals and test authorization

The authorization procedure required by law in Switzerland and the internal set-up at Roche for acquiring experimental animals has made a computerized system for monitoring authorizations and animal deliveries essential. The INQUIRE software program, which can be run on the central computer, was used to set-up databases with information on all personnel who place orders and perform experiments (PERI), authorization matters (BEWI), orders (ORDR), deliveries (SPED), animal species (SPEC), animal strains (STRE), populations (POPU) and the management of various data (BARA). The authorizations database (BEWI) permits sequential searches on specific questions. The animals ordered in the ORDR database are constantly updated in BEWI, thus ensuring that the authorized animal quotas are not exceeded. Expiry of an authorization or an unregistered experimenter will come to light in the course of the plausibility study. Through ORDR the experimenter has a good overview of the animals that he has ordered or have been ordered for him, and he can select the most appropriate strain or population for his studies in STRE or POPU, which contain data on the genetic and physiological characteristics as well as the breeding and keeping of all sublines and stocks. Realization of the IFIS project has made it a simple matter to keep a check on the legal requirements pertaining to animal experimentation and to update the information and evaluate the entire stock of data at any time.     

Vulnerable Subjects? The Case of Nonhuman Animals in Experimentation

The concept of vulnerability is deployed in bioethics to, amongst other things, identify and remedy harms to participants in research, yet although nonhuman animals in experimentation seem intuitively to be vulnerable, this concept and its attendant protections are rarely applied to research animals. I want to argue, however, that this concept is applicable to nonhuman animals and that a new taxonomy of vulnerability developed in the context of human bioethics can be applied to research animals. This taxonomy does useful explanatory work, helping to pinpoint the limitations of the 3Rs/welfare approach currently adopted in the context of animal experimentation. On this account, the 3Rs/welfare approach fails to deliver for nonhuman animals in experimentation because it effectively addresses only one element of their vulnerability (inherent) and paradoxically through the institution of Animal Ethics Committees intended to protect experimental animals in fact generates new vulnerabilities that exacerbate their already precarious situation.     

Diagnosis of ecto- and endoparasites in laboratory rats and mice

Internal and external parasites remain a significant concern in laboratory rodent facilities, and many research facilities harbor some parasitized animals. Before embarking on an examination of animals for parasites, two things should be considered. One: what use will be made of the information collected, and two: which test is the most appropriate. Knowing that animals are parasitized may be something that the facility accepts, but there is often a need to treat animals and then to determine the efficacy of treatment. Parasites may be detected in animals through various techniques, including samples taken from live or euthanized animals. Historically, the tests with the greatest diagnostic sensitivity required euthanasia of the animal, although PCR has allowed high-sensitivity testing for several types of parasite. This article demonstrates procedures for the detection of endo- and ectoparasites in mice and rats. The same procedures are applicable to other rodents, although the species of parasites found will differ.     

痔疮动物模型的研究进展

随着对痔疮新药药效评价的需求,痔疮模型的建立有了初步的发展。目前,大鼠、小鼠、家兔、卷尾猴等动物已被成功的用于痔疮模型的建立。所用方法主要有:巴豆油法、醋酸法、感染法、创伤法、静脉阻断法等,动物模型的成功建立和合理应用将有利于推动痔疮新药的研发,本文将现有痔疮模型创建的原理和方法进行了归纳、总结。     

空肠弯曲菌感染动物模型的研究进展

空肠弯曲菌是一种全球关注的人兽共患病原菌,感染后可引起人和动物多种疾病。动物模型是开展致病机理、疫苗评价和药物开发等研究的基础。空肠弯曲菌由于培养条件苛刻以及感染实验动物的疾病相似性、经济性和重复性等因素,仍缺乏良好的感染动物模型,其致病机理迄今尚不清楚。本文对已报道的空肠弯曲菌感染实验动物模型进行综述。     

Selective and divided attention in animals

This article reviews some of the research on attentional processes in animals. In the traditional approach to selective attention, it is proposed that in addition to specific response attachments, animals also learn something about the dimension along which the stimuli fall (e.g., hue, brightness, or line orientation). More recently, there has been an attempt to find animal analogs to methodologies originally applied to research with humans. One line of research has been directed to the question of whether animals can locate a target among distracters faster if they are prepared for the presentation of the target (search image and priming). In the study of search image, the target is typically a food item and the cue consists of previous trials on which the same target is presented. In research on priming effects, the cue is typically different from the target but is a good predictor of its occurrence. The study of preattentive processes shows that perceptually, certain stimuli stand out from distracters better than others, depending not only on characteristics of the target relative to the distracters, but also on relations among the distracters. Research on divided attention is examined with the goal of determining whether an animal can process two elements of a compound sample with the same efficiency as one. Taken together, the reviewed research indicates that animals are capable of centrally (not just peripherally) attending to selective aspects of a stimulus display.     

Reduction through education: the insight of a trainer

One of the articles contained within European Council Directive 86/609/EEC states that "Persons who carry out experiments or take part in them, and persons who take care of animals used for experiments, including duties of a supervisory nature, shall have appropriate training". In effect, this article stipulates that only competent individuals are allowed to work with laboratory animals. At least three groups of individuals can be identified with different responsibilities toward experimental animals: animal technicians, scientists, and veterinarians/animal welfare officers. The responsibilities and duties of the individuals within each of these categories differ. This paper focuses on the training of scientists. The scientist designs, and often also performs, animal experiments. Therefore, scientists must be educated to develop an attitude of respect toward laboratory animals, and must be trained so that, if an experiment must be performed with animals, it is designed according to the highest possible scientific and ethical standards. In The Netherlands, the law stipulates that scientists intending to work with animals must have completed a course in laboratory animal science. This compulsory course started in 1986. The Department of Laboratory Animal Science at Utrecht University is responsible for the national coordination of this course. Participants must have an academic degree (at the level of MSc) in one of the biomedical sciences, such as biology, medicine or veterinary medicine. Although the course is an intensive 3-week, 120-hour long course, which covers both technical and ethical aspects of laboratory animal experimentation, it cannot provide full competence. It is designed to provide sufficient basic training and knowledge to enable students to design animal experiments, and to develop an attitude that will be conducive to the implementation of the Three Rs. However, full competence will always require further training that can only be acquired as a result of practical experience gained while working in the field of laboratory animal research. Evaluations subsequent to the course have revealed that more than 98% of the students regard the course as indispensable for all scientists working in a research area where animal experiments are performed. They agree that the course not only contributes to the quality of experiments and to the welfare of animals, but also to a decrease in the number of animals used in experiments.