Regulations & Ethical Review

Severity classification of laboratory animal procedures in two Belgian academic institutions

According to the EU Directive 2010/63, all animal procedures must be classified as non-recovery, mild, moderate or severe. Several examples are included in the Directive to help in severity classification. Since the implementation of the Directive, different publications and guidelines...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: De Vleeschauwer, S., Lambaerts, K., Hernot, S. et al. 2023. Severity classification of laboratory animal procedures in two Belgian academic institutions. Animals 13(16), 2581.

Ethical considerations for echinoderms: New initiatives in welfare

This paper explores the ethical considerations surrounding research on echinoderms, a group of invertebrates that has recently garnered attention in the scientific community. The importance of responsible animal handling and the need for an ethical framework that encompasses echinoderms are...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: Invertebrate, Other Invertebrate

Citation: Crespi-Abril, A. C., Rubilar, T. 2023. Ethical considerations for echinoderms: New initiatives in welfare. Animals 13(21), 3377.

Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics

Fish are one of the most highly utilised vertebrate taxa by humans; they are harvested from wild stocks as part of global fishing industries, grown under intensive aquaculture conditions, are the most common pet and are widely used for scientific...

Year Published: 2015Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish, Salmon, Shark & Ray, Tilapia, Trout, Zebrafish

Citation: Brown, C. 2015. Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics. Animal Cognition 18(1), 1–17.

Fit for Purpose assessment: A new direction for IACUCs

The organization and function of the institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) is the key component of government regulation and oversight of necessary scientific research using live animals and of AAALAC - International accreditation of animal care and use...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Kinter, L. B., Johnson, D. K., Weichbrod, R. H. et al. 2021. Fit for Purpose assessment: A new direction for IACUCs. ILAR Journal 62(3), 314–331.

Guidelines for protecting and promoting insect welfare in research

These guidelines were developed by the leadership of the Insect Welfare Research Society (IWRS). They are intended to provide guidance to individuals researching insects, in laboratory, field, education, and industry contexts. The guidelines are informed by standard principles of animal...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: Insect & Spider, Invertebrate

Citation: Fischer, B., Barrett, M., Adcock, S. et al. 2023. Guidelines for protecting and promoting insect welfare in research. Insect Welfare Research Society.

Mission creep or mission lapse? Scientific review in research oversight

Background: The ethical use both of human and non-human animals in research is predicated on the assumption that it is of a high quality and its projected benefits are more significant than the risks and harms imposed on subjects. Yet...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Waltz, M., Fisher, J. A., Walker, R. L. 2023. Mission creep or mission lapse? Scientific review in research oversight. AJOB Empirical Bioethics 14(1), 38-49.

Defining short-term accommodation for animals

The terms short-term, temporary, and transitional are related but can have different contexts and meanings for animal husbandry. The definitions and use of these terms can be pivotal to animal housing and welfare. We conducted three separate literature searches using...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Housing, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Warwick, C., Steedman, C., Jessop, M. et al. 2023. Defining short-term accommodation for animals. Animals 13(4), 732.

Are currently selected laboratory animals useful in the research of how female hormones influence orthodontic biomechanics?

Animal testing was and remains the only method of introducing a certain treatment and medical procedure on humans. On the other hand, animals have their rights resulting from applicable legal acts, including Directive 2010/63/EU and, indirectly, the World Medical Association...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General, Cat, Rabbit, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Peruga, M., Kawala, B., Sarul, M. et al. 2023. Are currently selected laboratory animals useful in the research of how female hormones influence orthodontic biomechanics? Animals 13(4), 629.

An ethics toolkit to support animal-centered research and design

Designers and researchers who work with animals need to employ an array of ethical competencies to guarantee the welfare of animals taking part in animal-centered research. The emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), which deals with the design of animal-centered...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Regulations & Ethical Review, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General, Dog

Citation: Ruge, L., Mancini, C. 2022. An ethics toolkit to support animal-centered research and design. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 891493.

A new strategy for animal research: Attending to dissent

Increasingly, ethical concepts ordinarily reserved for the human research setting have been applied to nonhuman animals in research. This comes at the same time as concerns mount over challenges in translating the results of biomedical research with animals to human...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Animal Training, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Johnson, J. 2023. A new strategy for animal research: Attending to dissent. Animals 13(9), 1491.