The research at Department of Animal Science is based on typical Danish production animals, such as cattle, pigs, poultry and mink. To a lesser extent, traditional experimental animals (rodents) are included in model studies. In order to target the education for PhD students, technicians, master students and young researchers in laboratory studies, the department recently again conducted an advanced course covering the mandatory curriculum for FELASA B and including production animals – theoretically as well as practically.

It is characteristic to many of the licensed experiments conducted at Department of Animal Science that they are in the boundary field between two legislations: the legislation related to animal experimentation and the Agricultural legislation, thus they can be complicated to handle. Therefore, the recent course also included exercises within the severity assessment of these animal species when kept as production animals.

Not only the severity assessment but also the underlying ethical considerations often differ from typical animal experiments, as experiments conducted at Department of Animal Science often are not conducted for the purpose of humans but aim at having an impact on the animals, their production, their health and welfare and not least the environment. These considerations and discussions of these were part of the busy days at the course.

If you would like to learn more about how Department of Animal Science work with 3R, here you will find a link to an article about the subject in Denmark’s 3R Centre’s annual report from 2018 (page 32). 

The Animal Experimentation courses at Department of Animal Science are arranged at regular intervals – when needed – and the courses are open to external participants. The dates for the next course are not yet determined, but interested candidates are welcome to contact our course responsible veterinarian Ricarda Engberg: Ricarda.Engberg@anis.au.dk