AWB
Animal Welfare Body
The institution shall establish an animal welfare body (AWB) (norw: “Dyrevelferdsenhet”)
Main content
Tasks for the Animal Welfare Body
The animal welfare body shall:
- Give advice in acquiring, housing, care and use of animals
- Give advice on compliance with the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement)
- Provide information on technical and scientific progress on replacement, reduction and refinement
- Develop and review internal operation routines to monitor, report on and follow up animal welfare issues, person health and safety and impact on experiments.
- Monitor how experiments impact animal welfare, person health and safety and impact on experiments.
- Identify and give advice on factors that contribute to further replacement, reduction and refinement
- Give advice for rehoming of animals (less relevant at UiB)
A record of all advices and decisions made by the AWB shall be stored for minimum of 3 years and be available on the request from Mattilsynet
Topics discussed in AWB
- Use of painkillers after surgery
- Humane endpoints and Scoring Sheet - what do we expect!
- Microbiological health-status - ensures quality, classification and risk assessment
- Services provided by the Animal Facility for breeding
- Single housing of animals
- Aseptic procedures for surgery
- Use of and change of P2-dust masks
- Project staartup meeting - review of protocol
- Riskevaluation
2016
- Aseptic routines for surgery
- Batch anesthesia
- Cleaning of the pig house
- Testing cell cultures of human origin
- Use of facial grimace score for evaluation of pain
- Transport of animals between the units
- Training of summer-substitutes
2017
- Enrichment program for pigs
- Enrichment program for rodents
- severity assessment and scoring for neurosurgical models in rodents
- Procedures for sentinel animals
- Use of cleaning and disinfection
- Procedures for unpacking animals
- Regulations for breeding at the animal facility
2018
- Infections in immundeficient animals
- Alterntil nesting material for mice
- Administrative procedures for animals use that do not need authorisation from Mattisynet
- Administrative procedures for breeding that do not need authorisation from Mattisynet
- Level of Phenotypecharacterization
- Review of enrichment progam
- Practical training
2019
- Review of tap water quality at Vivarium
- Rodent handling made easy
- Equipment for bulk sterilization of gods – alternative to autoclaves
- Dispensing category A and B drugs for use in animals
- Evaluation of routines for PPE in barriers
2020
- Update contingency plan in light of the Corona-pandemic
- Rehoming of pigs meant for trauma course
- New organization of work task
- Improve solution for storage of pig carcasses – with focus on ergonomics
- Policies for the use of physical restraint procedures or devices
- Use of PCR for health monitoring
2021
- Acclimatization vs Single housing
- Stressfree handling of rodents
- Prescription on regulated drugs
- Water quality for rodents
- Revision of Score sheets
- Enrishment for rats
- Improve animal welfare without compromizin standardization
- Producing webinars for internal re-training
Members of the AWB 2021
- Suzanne Brandt – Clinical vet (Chair)
- Helene Otterå - Animal Care ingeneer/OHS-officer
- Gry Bernes – Animal Care ingeneer
- Tine Veronica Karlsen - Associate Professor, IBM
- Lise Skålvik Amble - Senior Executive Officer, Study Adviser
- Aurora Brønstad - Chief veterinarian/Reserarcher (Secretary)
Contact the Animal Welfare Body
The AWB can be contacted using dve@uib.no
All animal research facilities must establish animal welfare body
The animal-welfare body shall, as a minimum, carry out the following tasks:
- Advise the staff dealing with animals on matters related to the welfare of animals, in relation to their acquisition, accommodation, care and use
- Advise the staff on the application of the requirement of replacement, reduction and refinement, and keep it informed of technical and scientific developments concerning the application of that requirement
- Establish and review internal operational processes as regards monitoring, reporting and follow-up in relation to the welfare of animals housed or used in the establishment
- Follow the development and outcome of projects, taking into account the effect on the animals used, and identify and advise as regards elements that further contribute to replacement, reduction and refinement
- Advise on rehoming schemes, including the appropriate socialisation of the animals to be rehomed
Documents
22.12.2021