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OFFICERS President Dr Robin Lovell Badge FRS Immediate Past President Professor Sir Richard Gardner MA PhD FSB HonFIAT FRS Vice Presidents David Anderson MRCVS Stephen Barnett BA MSc CBiol FSB RAnTech John Bleby TD JP DVetMed DLAS CBiol FSB MRCVS Brian Cass CBE Miles Carroll PhD Gerald Clough BSc PhD EurBiol CBiol MSB SFZSL Paul Flecknell MA Vet MB PhD DLAS DipLECVA MRCVS Barbara Mortimer BVetMed DLAS MRCVS Judy MacArthur Clark CBE BVMS DLAS CBiol FSB MRCVS Fiona McEwen BSc BVM S MSc MRCVS Tim Morris BVetMed PhD DipACLAM DipECLAM CBiol FSB CertLAS MRCVS Jos Orellana BVSc MSc Clive Page PhD BSc Sophie Petit Zeman PhD Gail Thompson RLATG Robert Weichbrod PhD RLATG Sheila Whitehead BVMS MSc CertLAS MRCVS Lord Robert Winston FMedSci DSc FRCOG FRCP FRCS Ed FSB Life Members Roger Francis MSC FIAT RAnTech Pete Gerson MSc FIAT RAnTech John Gregory BSc Hons FIAT CBiol FSB RAnTech Patrick Hayes FIAT DipBA RAnTech John Kelly FIAT Robert Kemp FIAT Hon RAnTech Keith Millican FIAT CBiol MSB Phil Ruddock MIAT RAnTech Ted Wills HonFIAT RAnTech Dorothy Woodnott FIAT Honorary Members John Frogley FIAT RAnTech Andrew Jackson MIAT John Lesley FIAT RAnTech Brian Lowe MSc FIAT RAnTech Ronald Raymond FIAT RAnTech Peter Russell FIAT RAnTech David Spillane FIAT Ray Thatcher FIAT RAnTech Peter Willan DMS FInstLM MIAT Animal Technology and Welfare Vol 12 No 3 December 2013 CONTENTS Editorial Jas Barley Chair of the Editorial Board ix What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers a UK perspective When is enough enough Haley Daniels 157 PAPER SUMMARY TRANSLATIONS 165 TECH 2 TECH Avoiding the pitfalls of refurbishment how to give an animal technician a nervous breakdown Janet Merrall 169 The paperless animal facility Rob Rutter 175 A defined training programme something no one should be without Carol Fox 181 Going Green in Ares Brian Gwynne and David Robinson 184 Are you ready for a disaster Carol Smee and Lynda Westall 191 Making use of a laser pointer as a training and enrichment tool A discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement Enrichment Forum Anthony Ferraro Rebecca Brunelli Stefanie Nelsen Genevieve Andres Kelly Polly Schultz and Viktor Reinhardt Moderator 195 Recruiting animal technologists It pays to avoid the common pitfalls Claire Bell Norman Mortell and Tim McGuire 197 Members of Council Ken Applebee Jas Barley Kate Burton Charlie Chambers Steven Cubitt Andy Cunningham Glyn Fisher Cathy Godfrey Alan Graham John Gregory Patrick Hayes Linda Horan Andy Jackson Elaine Kirkum Adele Kitching Sarah Lane Norman Mortell Steve Owen Wendy Steel Allan Thornhill Lynda Westall Debbi Young Members of Executive Committee AS ET SPECIAL TRAVEL BURSARY 2013 ESSAYS What do you regard as the most important issues in optimising the care and welfare of laboratory animals Sharon Jones Council Officers A risk based approach to reducing exposure of staff to laboratory animal allergens Lynda Westall Ian Graham and James Bussell 209 Competency training in the laboratory animal science environment the triumphs and tribulations Jennifer Salisbury Wendy Skeen and James Bussell 213 Cryopreservation of laboratory rodents as back up in case of disaster Martina Dorsch 216 Introduction to the international nomenclature of laboratory rodents Johannes Schenkel and Jutta Davidson 219 The effects of changes in legislation on staff and researcher training in laboratory animal science in Ireland Sylvia Mehigan Anne Brayley Christoph Blau and Peter Nowlan 221 Good practice guide for the care use and breeding of laboratory rodents Layna Rier et al 225 Chair Steve Owen FIAT RAnTech Vice Chair Ken Applebee FIAT CBiol FSB RAnTech Honorary Secretary Wendy Steel BSc Hons FIAT RAnTech Honorary Treasurer Glyn Fisher FIAT RAnTech Assistant Treasurer Charlie Chambers MIAT RAnTech Chair Board of Educational Policy Ken Applebee FIAT CBiol FSB RAnTech POSTER PRESENTATIONS Approaching animal welfare from a Global Corporate perspective Marilyn Brown 202 205 Effects of thermal sterilisation on selected components of 227 diets for laboratory rodents Anna Tu nio M Taciak M Barszcz J Paradziej ukowicz s I Ol dzka W Wiczkowski M Szumska B Pastuszewska and J Skomia Chair Board of Moderators Cathy Godfrey FIAT RAnTech Chair Registration Accreditation Board Charlie Chambers MIAT RAnTech Emergency solution in a BioModule facing an air conditioning supply failure C Mu oz Mediavilla S Salazar A D az E Mu oz V Granda and Isabel Blanco 229 Chair ATW Editorial Board Jas Barley MSc FIAT RAnTech LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 231 Instructions to Authors 233 continued on page ii i

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BRANCH SECRETARIES 2013 Officers continued from page i Bulletin Editor Sarah Lane MSc FIAT RAnTech Assistant Bulletin Editor Elaine Kirkum MIAT RAnTech MIScT Branch Liaison Officer Lynda Westall BSc Hons FIAT DMS RAnTech EFAT Representatives Charlie Chambers MIAT RAnTech Kate Burton MSc FIAT RAnTech Council Website Coordinator Allan Thornhill FIAT RAnTech IAT INFORMATION Animal Welfare Officers LABA Representatives Sarah Lane Debbi Young ATW Bulletin Editorial Board Jas Barley Chair Patrick Hayes Editorial Assistant Elaine Kirkum Sarah Lane Lynda Westall Aberdeen Ms Donna Wallace Rowett Research Institute Greenburb Road Bucksburn Aberdeen AB21 9BJ Cambridge Ms Fran Flack Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Wellcome Trust Genome Campus Hinxton Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA Cheshire Ms Julie Humphreys Block 53 Mereside Astrazeneca Alderley Edge Nr Macclesfield Cheshire SK10 4TG Edinburgh Ms Janice Young Evans Building Western General Hospital Crewe Road Edinburgh EH4 2XU Hertfordshire Essex Ms Hazel Sleight GSK Safety Assessment Toxicology Support Park Road Ware Hertfordshire SG12 0DP Board of Educational Policy Ken Applebee Chair Steven Cubitt Secretary Sarah Lane Huntingdon Suffolk Norfolk Ms Jo Martin Huntingdon Life Sciences Woolley Road Alconbury Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE28 4HS Board of Moderators Cathy Godfrey Chair Glyn Fisher Secretary Moderators Gary Childs Joanna Cruden Nicky Gent Linda Horan Sue McHugh Ireland Mr Colin Travis Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute Trinity College 157 160 Pearse Street Dublin 2 Ireland Communications Group Norman Mortell Chair Kate Burton Haley Daniels Linda Horan Elaine Kirkum Allan Thornhill Lynda Westall Registration and Accreditation Board Ken Applebee Charlie Chambers Chair Gerald Clough John Gregory Cathy Godfrey Sarah Lane Ron Raymond Wendy Steel Secretary Steve Owen Stuart Stevenson Carol Williams Observers Charles Gentry Certificate Holders Forum Adrian Deeny LASA Kathy Ryder Home Office Lucy Whitfield LAVA Advertisement Managers PRC Associates Ltd Email mail prcassoc co uk IAT OFFICERS MAY BE CONTACTED VIA IAT Administrator iat101 btconnect com OR VIA THE IAT WEBSITE AT www iat org uk OR VIA THE REGISTERED OFFICE 5 South Parade Summertown Oxford OX2 7JL Although every effort is made to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data opinion or statement appear in the journal the Institute of Animal Technology wish to expound that the data and opinions appearing in the articles poster presentations and advertisements in ATW are the responsibility of the contributor and advertiser concerned Accordingly the IAT Editor and their agents accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data opinion statement or advertisement being published Furthermore the opinions expressed in the journal do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or the Institute of Animal Technology 2013 Institute of Animal Technology All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission from the publisher ii London Ms Karen Robinson BSU Rayne 4th Floor Lambeth Wing St Thomas Hospital London SE1 1UL Midlands Mr Ian Fielding Tecniplast UK BCM Box 3058 London WC1N 3XX North East England Ms Nicky Windows Datesand Ltd PO Box 45 Manchester M11 1XD Oxford Mr Adrian Woodhouse Prosidion Windrush Court Transport Way Watlington Road Cowley Oxford OX4 6LT Surrey Hampshire Sussex Ms Lesley Hughes c o Building 200 ASU Veterinary Laboratories Agency Woodham Lane New Haw Addlestone Surrey KT15 3NB West Middlesex Mrs Wendy Steel Faculty of Medicine Imperial College London Central Biomedical Services South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ West of Scotland Ms Linda Horan Biological Procedures Unit University of Strathclyde SIBS Building c o Phys and Pharm 27 Taylor Street Glasgow G4 ONR

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare THE INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL TECHNOLOGY ETHICAL STATEMENT IN THE CONDUCT OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL DUTIES ANIMAL TECHNOLOGISTS HAVE A MORAL AND LEGAL OBLIGATION AT ALL TIMES TO PROMOTE AND SAFEGUARD THE WELFARE OF ANIMALS IN THEIR CARE AND TO RECOGNISE THAT GOOD LABORATORY ANIMAL WELFARE IS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF GOOD LABORATORY ANIMAL TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE Editorial Jas Barley Chair of the Editorial Board When I first started work as an Animal Technician I clearly remember the late Marjorie Sandiford telling the students on my IAT course that as our education and careers progressed we would learn many new things However I don t remember her ever mentioning Management but times have changed and many of us spend our days now doing nothing other than managing Although IAT courses now include management subjects many of us feel ill equipped when we first achieve management status and a Management themed issue has been requested by readers It is far too big a subject to cover in one issue so we will be returning to the topic again in future issues and articles Our contributors to this issue have covered a diverse range of subjects which fall under the general spectrum of management ranging from Haley Daniels thought provoking paper on the Psychological Contract between Managers and their staff Janet Merrall offers us an insight into avoiding the pitfalls of refurbishment and Rob Rutter deals with the concept of the Paperless Facility something I ve been trying to achieve for many years The future is also certainly going to involve us all thinking about being kinder to our environment and reducing the impact our industry has on resources such as water energy and also the inevitable waste products created by our charges as well as conserving diminishing budgets wherever possible In Going Green in Ares Brian Gwynne demonstrates how a large facility has managed to reduce both the use of energy and its waste disposal costs by using Green measures These articles have all been based on Platform Presentations from Congress 2013 and I would like to thank the authors for making them available to us The Institute often receives requests to make more of the Congress material available to members and we are endeavouring to do this but we can only publish what we are provided with so if you present at Congress or other meetings please do not ignore our appeals for articles Our readers really want to know what you have to say Good management involves a planning for future requirements and this issue also includes articles on preparing a disaster recovery plan by Carol Smee and Lynda Westall whilst Carol Fox deals with providing training programmes If neither of those work employing new staff may be necessary and how to avoid the common recruiting pitfalls has been covered by Claire Bell and her colleagues Animal welfare is as always still our raison d etre and another contribution from the Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum discusses the use of laser pointers as a training and enrichment tool What do you regard as the most important issues in optimising the care and welfare of laboratory animals was the topic for the AS ET Special Travel Bursary essay competition and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to include the winning entry from Sharon Jones We will publish some of the other entries in future issues As you probably know AS ET was established to advance education and promote excellence in the care and welfare of animals used in science and amongst other things provides bursaries for course fees travel and bursaries The Trust can only do this if money is available so if you are not already an individual supporter please consider becoming one The cost is modest but the benefit your money will provide is potentially enormous Finally I d like to thank the organisers of the joint FELASA SECAL Congress 2013 for their permission to reprint posters equally goes to the poster authors who have generously given their permission for us to share their contributions with you and we offer papers from Cuba Germany Ireland Poland Spain the USA as well of course the U K Hopefully more will be included in next years issues ix

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare What obligations of the Psychological Contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF Managers A UK perspective When is enough enough HALEY DANIELS Biological Service Facility Department of Biology York University North Yorkshire YO10 5DD Corresponding author haley daniels york ac uk Summary This research stems from the desire to gain insight into the employment relationship between organisations and managers of animal research facilities within the Biomedical Research Industry The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 argue that organisations are recognising that motivating their staff to perform is a much more complex issue than just providing financial incentives The importance of engaging staff and securing their discretionar y commitment in achieving high per formance is fundamental Rousseau 1995 2 defines the Psychological Contract as an individual s belief in mutual obligations between the person and another party such as an employer This belief is predicted on the perception that an exchange of promises has been made to which the parties are bound The Psychological Contract has helped to define and illustrate some key facts influencing the employment relationship and the commitment of staff 1 Despite extensive research on psychological contracts from Rousseau and others research focussed on psychological contracts in this industry has not been conducted Using the Guest and Conway Psychological Contract model 2002 3 and factors influencing the psychological contract1 this research aimed to discover what obligations of the Psychological Contract Deal were important to management of animal research facilities within the Biomedical Research industry The research demonstrates the employment relationships between managers and their organisation are extremely unstable Critical obligations of the Psychological Contract deal such as trust training and development and job satisfaction have been breached affecting employee loyalty attitude and behaviours Salary and job security appear to be fulfilled and appear to be the motivating factors retaining management in this critical industry at the current time Introduction The term Psychological Contract emerged in literature approximately 55 years ago referring to a concept that captures implicit ideas about the employeeorganisation relationship 4 The term was first used to in the context of work organisations by Argyris 1960 5 to understand organisational behaviour Further research conducted by Levenson Price and Solley 1962 6 continued this concept They defined the Psychological Contract as The sum of mutual expectations between the organisation and the employee including what both parties are entitled to receive and what one is obliged to provide to each other The underlying concept is that an exchange relationship exists between the organisation and the worker Although interest in the Psychological Contract emerged at an early stage consideration of its application to management theory did not emerge fully until the 1990 s led by Rousseau2 who defines the Psychological Contract as an individual s belief in mutual obligations between that person and another party such as an employer This belief is predicted on the perception that an exchange of promises has been made to which the 157

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers parties are bound The concept of the Psychological Contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future returns has been made a contribution has been given and thus an obligation has been created to provide future benefits7 This subjective and mutual agreement between employee and employer is key to this piece of research What content of the Psychological Contract deal do employees within this industry view as the primary reciprocal deal which binds employee and employer together and furthermore what are the implications should this be unreciprocated by one party Seminal literature argues that the formation of the Psychological Contract consists of pre employment beliefs and post employment socialisation into the organisation Seminal literature also suggests that employee expectations develop incrementally in the employment relationship and become embedded in the Psychological Contract Once the socialisation process between newcomer and employer is underway it is important to establish what the deal comprises and means to each individual Research conducted in 20068 by Atkinson and Cuthbert identified the deal as the obligations contained within the Psychological Contract and whilst a great amount of research exists on Psychological Contracts and a wide array of obligations deemed to form the content of the Psychological Contract there has been no definitive set of obligations agreed upon In 2002 Guest and Conway3 conducted research on behalf of the CIPD which focused on employee wellbeing and the Psychological Contract This examined employee attitudes regarding fairness trust and Influencing Factors 0 Individual Psychological Contract Outcomes characteristics Organisational climate and context HR policies and practices Guest and Conway 2002 3 argue that the Psychological Contract model below Figure 1 represents the current relationship identifying influencing factors impacting on the content of the Psychological Contract which in turn impact on the outcomes of the employee and the employer relationship and behaviour The above model Figure 1 identifies that G G G The extent to which employees adapt people management practices will have a major influence on the state of the Psychological Contract The state of the Psychological Contract will be reflected in employees sense of fairness and trust their belief that the employer will deliver on the deal between them A positive Psychological Contract will lead to greater employee commitment and satisfaction increased motivation positive work attitudes and behaviours positive job per formance and an increase in productivity for the organisation The above model formed the basis of this study enabling the researcher to identify what aspects of the deal are the most important to management Research also conducted by the CIPD1 identified the key factors underpinning the Psychological Contract Job Satisfaction Motivation Fairness Trust Employee attitudes Work satisfaction Commitment Trust Fairness Job security Delivery of the deal Employee behaviour Job performance Intention to quit Figure 1 The Psychological Contract model by Guest and Conway 2002 identifies key factors influencing the outcomes of the Psychological Contract 158 organisational delivery of the deal that have a major influence on securing a positive Psychological Contract increased satisfaction and commitment Guest Conway3 argue that the contract is based on employees sense of fairness and trust and belief that the employer is honouring the deal between them Work Life balance Commitment How people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance Cranny et al 1992 pp 4 CIPD argue that an employee s level of job satisfaction is the primary source of data which can be used to predict an employee s rate of absenteeism or psychological withdrawal The force within the individual that influences or directs behavior Marquis et al 2008 pp 442 To be treated similar to others in the working environment e g fair pay treated with respect not being bullied and receiving same opportunities as colleagues Cooper et al 2012 pp 175 The firm belief in the reliability truth or ability of someone or something Oxford Dictionary 2012 defined by ability understanding fairness openness integrity and consistency in an employer Guardian newspaper 2012 pp 49 An important factor in determining workers satisfaction it is argued Evans 2001 pg 129 that having a secure income is too thirds as important as having a large one Having enough time for work and enough time for a life and family commitments Defined as the relative importance between work and oneself Loscoco cited in Redmond 2012 Its concept encompasses a broad range of job related attitudes that consist of work ethic organisational commitment job involvement and commitment to an individual s profession Figure 2 Factors underpinning the Psychological Contract adapted from CIPD 2004

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers These are highlighted in the table Fig 2 and used alongside the Guest and Conway model to form the basis of the research design for this study The CIPD 2004 1 also identified types of commitment that employees and employers might make to one another to form the basis of the employment relationship deal These are highlighted in the table below and inform and allow discussion and understanding of this research Employees promise to Employers promise to provide Work Hard Pay commensurate with performance Uphold company reputation Opportunities for training and development Maintain high levels of A great amount of research exists focussing on Psychological Contract theory within specific industries and sectors however little published research exists focussing on psychological contract theory in the biomedical research industry This is particularly relevant to managers of biological services facilities in the biomedical research industry What state is the employee employer relationship in and if violation of this important contract does occur when does enough become enough Opportunities for promotion Methodology attendance and punctuality Show loyalty to the Recognition for innovation or organisation new ideas Work extra hours when Feedback on performance required Develop new skills and state that accompanies violation the feelings of betrayal distress anger resentment a sense of injustice and wrongful harm which culminates in lowered job satisfaction and commitment Interesting tasks update old ones Be flexible for example An attractive benefits taking on a colleague s work package Be courteous to clients and Respectful treatment colleagues Be honest Reasonable job security Come up with new ideas The impetus for this research stems from the authors experiences of the Psychological Contract within this specific field over the previous 20 years As a BSF Manager the author has personal experiences of the employee employer relationship and variations in breach and violation of this relationship The fact that this study is based on an element of self investigation demanded that the author avoid bias and instill balance throughout the study In order to ensure that the relevant information could be obtained it was vitally important that the correct methodology and research methods were employed A pleasant and safe working environment Figure 3 CIPD Employer and Employee Mutual Obligations CIPD 2004 Psychological Contract Violation when is enough enough It has to be stated that even with the best intentions from the employer and employee relationships can break down and the Psychological Contract can be Violated A Psychological Contract violation can be described as perceived failures to comply with its terms and conditions and can be potentially damaging to all involved Rousseau 2000 or when employees perceive that their employers have failed to fulfil at least one obligation or promise implied by their employer Feldman 2009 10 A plethora of studies focussing on Psychological Contract breach and violation have repor ted a substantial relationship between perceived breaches and diverse outcomes such as lowered job satisfaction11 lowered organisational commitment12 reduced health and well being of employees increase in employee turnover increase in sickness absence13 It is also suggested14 that there is also an emotional The author adopted a phenomenological interpretivist approach associated with qualitative research whereby the phenomological approach refers to the way in which we as humans make sense of the world around us 15 Qualitative methods can be used to uncover what lies behind any phenomenon about which little is yet known and gain novel and fresh slants on things 16 Using an interpretivist philosophy which is most often associated with small samples and in depth interviews suggests that both subjective meaning and social phenomena can be explored as a result of data collection 16 An inductive approach to this research was adopted as this was deemed to be better suited to the use and interpretation of qualitative data Additionally this assisted the author to build on theory rather than commence with the study with a pre conceived hypothesis A review of existing literature personal knowledge experiences and discussions across the industr y suggested that very little research had been conducted in this subject area Given that the very context of the role of a BSF manager can be deemed as sensitive and extremely demanding it was important to gain an insight into the state of the Psychological Contracts between managers and organisations 159

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers The study adopted a non probability sampling technique purposive judgement sampling focused on a small exclusive research sample The intention was to gain as much information as possible within a small time scale Structured interviews were the strategic research choice for this study All interview questions were standardised with each interviewee answering identical questions This was an in depth interview comprising 35 questions in total Questions were based on elements of the Psychological Contract deal and content and were focused on the following areas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 General background of candidate e g gender age range location length of service Trust between employee and employer Job security Motivation Loyalty Reward Job Satisfaction Salary Progression Training Autonomy in the role Work life balance Perceptions of the Psychological Contract from a management perspective This research focused on 11 BSF Managers from 11 different organisations which included both male and female participants from public and private sector organisations and from various regions from Scotland to the south of England The interviews were conducted face to face and confidentiality was maintained throughout the process Interview scripts remained nameless and all scripts were stored confidentially The data was then grouped into categories and then transcribed question by question into tally charts and emerging themes using a coding system Data was then displayed and analysed using techniques for qualitative research Results Results are based on each specific category of the Psychological Contract deal G Trust These questions focused on the expectation of the participant towards their line manager and senior management of the organisation with regards looking after the participant s best interest There was also a focus on how far the participants felt their organisation would keep its promises and commitments towards 160 them as an employee The results identified a somewhat lack of trust in immediate line management and even less trust in senior management of the organisation The majority of par ticipants felt that decisions regarding their organisation which would significantly impact on the participant were being made with little engagement This is extremely relevant to the state of the Psychological Contract as Trust along with unmet expectations mediates the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees subsequent commitment to the firm 17 With many changes throughout this industry at the present time it was felt many changes were occurring such as restructuring downsizing and changes in research focus and it was felt trust was one of the most impor tant elements of the employee employer relationship G Job security How participants viewed their current state of job security commitment from the employer with regards job security and if the participant had any desire to leave in the coming 12 18 months Seminal research has identified that job security is a key factor in the formation and maintenance of the Psychological Contract The majority of participants felt very secure in their role with the minority of participants looking for jobs elsewhere The evidence suggests that the concept of a job for life is changing in public sector organisations at a time when funding for research is an issue and research establishments are making redundancies However there tended to be a positive slant to this question managers in organisations who had lengthy service appear to think that they would receive a commensurate package should their job no longer be required and many of the participants felt they had transferable skills to other roles Participants with less service were actively pursuing other activities and qualifications outside the organisation as an alternative route The majority of managers with long service tended to think that biological research would be required for many years to come the minority of managers agreed but were actively pursuing other areas just in case G Motivation and loyalty Participants displayed an overwhelming response when questioned about how motivated they were in their current job The majority of managers responded with very motivated and when probed further stated reasons such as enjoy the job sense of purpose friends at work Whilst ever yone has different motivation for working the main focus of work is to

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers obtain something for themselves this can be salary love personal fulfilment contribution to something larger than themselves or meaningful work18 It appeared interesting that even though trust between the employee and the organisation appears to be incredibly low motivation amongst the managers who participated in this study was extremely high It is also interesting to note that when asked about loyalty the majority of participants displayed very little loyalty towards the organisations in which they work Again this is interesting when compared to certain motivation theories where factors such as lack of trust and loyalty appear to be de motivating factors yet this study identified motivation as being the highest obligation which was being upheld from an employee perspective regardless of other influencing factors G Salary and reward The results of this study identified that on the surface there appear to be no issues when it comes to salary The majority of managers interviewed felt that they are fairly paid for the work that they do and that their salary is representative of other managers carrying out the same work It was also felt that it is difficult to recruit and maintain staff in this area of work which tended to result in higher salaries than standard animal care work G Training and progression When participants were asked in this study whether they felt that they received adequate training and development there appeared to be an element of frustration amongst the managers It became apparent that managers interviewed did not feel that their employer was meeting their side of the deal when it comes to training The majority of organisations appeared to have a very limited staff training budget and viewed their performance review where training was discussed as a paper exercise It is apparent from the study that the organisation believes that managers are responsible for organising their own training which appeared to result in a perceived lack of interest from the employer This appeared to be a per tinent issue due to the training required for upcoming changes to legislation G Support and autonomy It appeared apparent from the findings of this study that the majority of organisations did not have support facilities in place and the ones that did have support in place did not necessarily work in practice It appeared that organisations had refused frequent requests for flexible working practices and it was felt among some participants that workplace benefits were sometimes used as marketing tools but were not authorised in practice It is argued that employees unable to handle work and family demands successfully due to work pressure are more likely to have less commitment to the organisation 19 something which appears to resonate with the findings of this research In addition given the demographic changes in the workforce that have taken place over the last few years increased female representation in the workplace means that couples are juggling both family and work roles20 The majority of participants interviewed felt that they have a high level of autonomy when it comes to planning their own work and daily schedules with senior management of the organisation as one respondent stated senior management do not have a clue what we do on a day to day basis they do not know the job do not understand legislation and leave it to us to get on with it Research by McKinsey et al21 1998 suggests that management engagement results in employees being passionate and committed to their work and are willing to invest the discretionar y effor t to see their organisation succeed This appears not to be the case in this study with results identifying that little trust loyalty and engagement exist Breach and violation of these critical Psychological Contract factors appear to be evident causing behavioural and attitudinal changes to employees such as feelings of resignation and frustration G Job satisfaction It became evident during this study that job satisfaction appeared low in the majority of interviews Most managers interviewed rated their satisfaction at work 5 out of 10 or below The findings identified that managers were happy overall with their life outside work majority rated 9 10 however on further probing it became evident that managers use the good salary to fund their lifestyles out of work Many managers appear to be somewhat frustrated having worked with their organisation for a long time doing the same job with little input from the employer and lack of training due to budgetary constraints Commitment from the majority of employees in this study towards the organisation appeared to be low Job satisfaction reflects how people feel about their jobs Studies focussed on job satisfaction and commitment have found that satisfied employees have a tendency to be more committed to their organisation leading to greater loyalty to the organisation22 This link is evident in this study where job satisfaction appears to be low and there also appears to be little loyalty trust and commitment towards the organisation in the majority of participants interviewed 161

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers Conclusion The results of this study suggest that the Psychological Contract between the majority of managers participants in this research and their organisation as an employer has been significantly breached which is defined as a perceived failure to comply with its terms and conditions 9 Findings suggest that there appears to be a significant lack of trust from employees towards employers Training and development appears to be extremely limited the majority of employees have little loyalty to the organisation and in the majority of participants job satisfaction is extremely low and work life balance can be an issue Empirical evidence suggests that Psychological Contract breach leads to reduced job satisfaction trust in the organisation and organisational commitment23 all of which appear to be consistent with the findings of this research The figure below identifies specific levels of breach violation for each obligation of the psychological contract deal for this study Figure 4 Level of breach of Psychological Contract obligations Further research24 suggests that a breach in the Psychological Contract also increases intentions to leave the organisation However when managers were interviewed as part of this study it became evident that thoughts of leaving their job in the near future were not being considered Although it could be suggested that this could be due to limited external opportunities in the current climate and high job security and not to loyalty and commitment to the organisation which appeared to be low It appears evident from this study that the important Psychological Contract obligations as part of the deal for the majority of managers within this study are salary and job security The other obligations of the deal identified by CIPD1 and Guest and Conway3 appear to have been consistently violated over a number of years yet these managers are not considering leaving the 162 organisation These findings suggest that even though these obligations appear to have been breached managers are willing to put up with it possibly due to the fact that all participants in the study appeared to be extremely dedicated to the animal research ethos of the work and the role they play in advancing science Comments such as you either love this job or hate it and once you are in this industry you get out fast or you stay for life were heard often through the study from participants Alternatively maybe managers stay in organisations due to the fact that they are isolated therefore to the nature of the work institutionalised having worked in a place a long time or fear the unknown having been in the research industry for a long time Or could it simply be that salary and job security are the most important obligations of the Psychological Contract for these managers and that these are enough to achieve motivational levels evidenced in the study As a BSF Manager one would think this is certainly not the case Whilst the employer adheres to their side of the perceived promise to deliver on this element of the deal where salaries and job security are not an issue managers appear to be prepared to tolerate lack of trust in their organisation little training and development opportunities and little engagement in future organisational change and policies It could be that employees perceive a moderate breach of obligations where individuals rationalise what expectations have been met unmet and where the overall situation might still fall within his her zone of acceptance prior to reaching individual thresholds of the perceived promises and expectations The feelings of violation such as disappointment resentment frustration and distress then may follow from the belief that one s organisation has failed to adequately maintain the psychological contract14 However if a higher level of breach occurs where the participants zone of acceptance is surpassed further reactions behaviours and attitudes on the part of the employee are likely to ensue25 Therefore to return to the research question what obligations of the Psychological Contract deal are important to BSF Managers in the biomedical research industry It is evident that job security and salary are important and appear to be motivating factors to the majority of these managers at the current time Internal motivation to do the job and remain passionate towards the animal research industry and junior trainee staff appeared to be extremely apparent throughout the study It appears and one might suggest that this passion and motivation for the role of a BSF Manager comes at a price It appears from the findings that managers at the current time are willing to put up with frequent violations in the employee employer relationship such as lack of training

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What obligations of the psychological contract are important to Biological Services Facility BSF managers engagement and support from senior management in order to stay in the job they feel motivated and passionate about when their employer appears to be failing to keep their side of the employee employer relationship promise 15 16 17 Given that the BSF Managers interviewed appear extremely dedicated to their role passionate about the industry they work in staff they manage and the contribution they make to the advances in science one has to ask the question how much more of a breach in the Psychological Contract deal between employee and employer could they take before enough is enough References and bibliography 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 10 11 12 13 14 CIPD 2004 Managing the Psychological Contract Taking the Temperature Char tered Institute for Personnel and Development Rousseau D M 1995 Psychological Contracts in Organisations London UK Sage Publications Ltd Guest D E and Conway N 2002 Communicating the Psychological Contract An employer perspective Human Resource Management Journal 12 2 p 22 28 Schalk R and Roe R E 2007 Towards a dynamic model of the psychological contract Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 37 2 p 167 182 Argyris C 1960 Understanding Organisational Behaviour Homeward IL Dorsey Press Levinson H Price C R and Solley C M 1962 Men Management and Mental Health Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Sels L Jansens M and Van Den Brande I 2004 Assessing the nature of psychological contracts a validation of six dimensions Journal of Organisational Behaviour 25 p 461 488 Atkinson C and Cuthbert P 2006 Does one size fit all A study of the psychological contract in the UK working population International Journal of Manpower 27 7 p 647 667 Rousseau D M 2000 Psychological Contract Inventor Technical Report Version 2 Pennsylvania USA Feldman D C and Ng T W H 2009 Age work and experience and the psychological contract Journal of Organisational Behaviour 30 p 1053 1075 Gakovic A and Tetrick L E 2003 Psychological contract breach as a source of strain for employees Journal of Business and Psychology 18 2 p 235 246 Conway N and Briner R B 2002 Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Research Oxford UK Oxford University Press Johnson J L and O Leary Kelly A M 2003 The effects of psychological contract breach and organizational cynicism not all social exchange violations are created equal Journal of Organisational Behaviour 24 p 627 647 Morrison E W and Robinson S L 1997 When employees feel betrayed A model of how psychological contract develops Academy of Management Review 22 1 p 226 256 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Saunders M Lewis P and Thornhill A 2009 Research Methods for Business Students 5th Ed Harlow UK Pearson Education Ltd Strauss A C and Corbin J M 2008 Basics of Qualitative Research 3rd Ed Thousand Oaks CA Sage Publications Inc Robinson S L 1996 Trust and Breach of the Psychological Contract Administrative Science Quarterly 41 4 p 574 599 Heathfield S M 2012 What people want from work Motivation http humanresources about com od rewardrecognition a needs_work htm Haar J M and Spell C S 2004 Programme knowledge and value of work family practices and organisational commitment The International Journal of Human Resource Management 14 6 p 1040 1055 Perrewe P L Treadway D C and Hall A T 2003 The work and family inter face Conflict Family Friendly policies and Employee Well Being in Health and Safety in Organisations A Multilevel Perspective eds Hoffman D A and Tetrick L E San Francisco CA Jossey Bass McKensey et al cited in Crim D and Seijts G H 2006 What engages employees the most or the Ten C s of employee engagement Ivey Business Journal March April p 15 Porter L W Steers R M Mowday R T and Boulian P 1974 Organisational Commitment job satisfaction and turnover among psychiatric technicians Journal of Applied Psychology 59 p 603 609 Robinson S L Kraatz M S and Rousseau D M 1994 Changing obligations and the psychological contract A longitudinal study Academy of Management Journal 31 1 p 304 320 Taylor M S and Tekleab A G 2003 Taking stock of psychological contract research Assessing progress addressing troublesome issues and setting research priorities In Coyle Shapiro J A M Shore L M Taylor M S And Tetrick L E The Employment Relationship Examining Contextual and Psychological Perspectives Oxford Oxford University Press P 253 283 Rigotti T 2008 Enough is Enough Threshold models for the relationship between psychological contract breach and job related attitudes European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 18 4 p 442 463 163

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare PAPER SUMMARY TRANSLATIONS INHALTVERZEICHNIS Welche Verpflichtungen des psychologischen Vertrags sind f r F hrungskr fte der Biological Services Facility BSF wichtig Eine Untersuchung aus britischer Sicht Wie viel ist genug HALEY DANIELS Biological Service Facility Department of Biology York University North Yorkshire Y010 5DD Korrespondierende autorin haley daniels york ac uk Abstract Diese Untersuchung entstammt dem Wunsch Erkenntnisse ber das Arbeitsverh ltnis zwischen Organisationen und F hrungskr ften in Tierversuchseinrichtungen des biomedizinischen Forschungssektors zu erlangen Das Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 vertritt die Auffassung dass Organisationen heute begreifen dass zur Motivierung ihrer Mitarbeiter zu mehr Leistung wesentlich mehr geh rt als die Gew hrung finanzieller Anreize Die Einbeziehung der Mitarbeiter und die Sicherstellung ihrer uneingeschr nkten Leistungsbereitschaft sind dabei von fundamentaler Bedeutung Rousseau 1995 2 definiert den psychologischen Vertrag als berzeugung einer Person von den wechselseitigen Verpflichtungen zwischen der Person und einer anderen Partei zum Beispiel einem Arbeitgeber Diese berzeugung beruht auf der Wahrnehmung dass ein Austausch von Versprechen erfolgt ist die die Vertragsparteien binden Der psychologische Vertrag hat zur Definierung und Veranschaulichung verschiedener wichtiger Faktoren beigetragen die einen Einfluss auf Arbeitsverh ltnis und Mitarbeiterengagement haben 1 Zwar liegen bereits umfangreiche von Rousseau und anderen durchgef hrte Forschungsarbeiten zu psychologischen Vertr gen vor doch eine konkrete Untersuchung psychologischer Vertr ge in unserer Branche ist bisher nicht erfolgt Ziel der vorliegenden Forschungsarbeit war es unter Ber cksichtigung des psychologischen Vertragsmodells von Guest Conway 2002 3 und der den psychologischen Vertrag beeinflussenden Faktoren zu ermitteln welche der sich aus dem Deal des psychologischen Ver trags ergebenden Verpflichtungen f r F hrungskr fte von Tierversuchseinrichtungen der biomedizinischen Forschung wichtig sind Diese Untersuchung weist nach dass das Arbeitsverh ltnis zwischen F hrungskr ften und ihrer Organisation u erst instabil ist Wesentliche sich aus dem Deal des psychologischen Vertrags ergebende Verpflichtungen wie Vertrauen Schulung und Fortbildung sowie Arbeitszufriedenheit werden verletzt wodurch Loyalit t Arbeitshaltung und Verhalten der Mitarbeiter beeintr chtigt werden Die Verpflichtungen bez glich Gehalt und Arbeitsplatzsicherheit scheinen erf llt zu werden und sind heute wohl die ausschlaggebenden Faktoren daf r F hrungskr fte in diesem kritischen Sektor halten zu k nnen 165

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Animal Technology and Welfare December 2013 CONTENU DE LA REVUE Quelles obligations du contrat psychologique sont importantes pour les directeurs des installations des services biologiques Biological Services Facility ou BSF Le point de vue du Royaume Uni Quand la coupe est elle pleine HALEY DANIELS Installations du service biologique Service de biologie Universit de York North Yorkshire Y010 5DD Auteur correspondant haley daniels york ac uk R sum Cette tude d coule du d sir d avoir un aper u de la relation entre les entreprises et les directeurs des laboratoires de recherche animale au sein de l industrie de la recherche biom dicale Le Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 affirme que les entreprises reconnaissent que la motivation du personnel en vue d une performance accrue est une question beaucoup plus complexe que le seul fait de proposer des encouragements financiers Il est essentiel d impliquer le personnel et de maintenir son engagement absolu pour atteindre un haut niveau de performance Rousseau 1995 2 d finit le contrat psychologique comme la croyance de l individu en des obligations r ciproques entre une personne et un tiers comme l employeur Cette croyance repose sur la perception qu un change de promesses s est fait entre les parties et les lie Le contrat psychologique a contribu d finir et illustrer certains faits importants qui influencent les relations professionnelles et l engagement du personnel1 En d pit de recherches approfondies sur les contrats psychologiques effectu es par Rousseau et d autres personnes aucune recherche en relation avec les contrats psychologiques dans cette industrie n a t men e Utilisant le mod le du contrat psychologique de Guest Conway 2002 3 et des facteurs influen ant le contrat psychologique1 cette tude a pour objectif de d couvrir quelles obligations du march conclu lors du contrat psychologique sont importantes pour la gestion des laboratoires de recherche animale au sein de la recherche biom dicale Cette tude d montre que les relations professionnelles entre les directeurs et leur entreprise sont extr mement instables Des obligations essentielles du march conclu lors du contrat psychologique telles que la confiance la formation et le d veloppement et la satisfaction professionnelle n ont pas t respect es ce qui a des cons quences sur la loyaut l attitude et le comportement des salari s Le salaire et la s curit de l emploi ont l air d tre respect s et semblent tre les motivations qui retiennent les dirigeants dans cette industrie cruciale l heure actuelle 166

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare INDICE DE LA REVISTA Obligaciones del Contrato Psicol gico que revisten importancia para los Responsables de Instalaciones de Servicios Biol gicos ISB Planteamiento del Reino Unido Cu ndo hay que decir basta HALEY DANIELS Instalaci n de Servicios Biol gicos Departamento de Biolog a Universidad de York North Yorkshire Y010 5DD Autor correspondiente haley daniels york ac uk Resumen Este estudio de investigaci n se lleva a cabo para conocer mejor las relaciones laborales entre las instituciones y los responsables de instalaciones para la investigaci n con animales dentro del sector de la investigaci n biom dica El Instituto de Colegiados en Personal y Desarrollo CIPD por sus siglas en ingl s 1 pone de manifiesto que distintas instituciones est n admitiendo que motivar a su personal para que rinda ptimamente es un tema mucho m s complejo que va m s all de ofrecer incentivos econ micos La importancia de hacer que el personal se involucre y garantice su compromiso discrecional para conseguir un mayor rendimiento es fundamental Rousseau 1995 2 define el Contrato Psicol gico como una creencia individual en la obligaci n mutua entre la persona y otra parte como por ejemplo una empresa Este parecer se asienta en la percepci n de que se ha realizado un intercambio de promesas que ambas partes deben cumplir El Contrato Psicol gico ha ayudado a definir e ilustrar algunos factores clave que influyen en la relaci n laboral y en el compromiso del personal1 A pesar de investigaciones exhaustivas sobre contratos psicol gicos de Rousseau y otros no se ha llevado a cabo ninguna investigaci n centrada en los contratos psicol gicos dentro de este sector Utilizando el modelo de contrato psicol gico de Guest Conway 2002 3 y los factores que incluyen en el Contrato Psicol gico1 esta investigaci n trataba de descubrir qu obligaciones del Contrato Psicol gico eran importantes para la gesti n de instalaciones donde se realizan ensayos de investigaci n con animales dentro del sector de la investigaci n biom dica El estudio demuestra que las relaciones laborales entre los responsables y su instituci n son extremadamente inestables Las obligaciones fundamentales del Contrat Psicol gico como la confianza la formaci n el desarrollo y la satisfacci n laboral no se han respetado y eso ha repercutido en la lealtad la actitud y el comportamiento del empleado El salario y la seguridad laboral parecen ser unos criterios de satisfacci n y motivaci n suficientes para que los responsables no dejen su puesto de trabajo en este sector cr tico en el momento actual 167

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Animal Technology and Welfare December 2013 INDICE DELLA REVISTA Gli obblighi del contratto psicologico importanti per i dirigenti del Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche BSF una prospettiva britannica Quando il troppo troppo HALEY DANIELS Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche Facolt di Biologia Universit di York North Yorkshire Y010 5DD Autore corrispondente haley daniels york ac uk Abstract Questa ricerca nasce dalla volont di comprendere il rapporto di lavoro tra le organizzazioni e i dirigenti degli istituti di ricerca sugli animali nell ambito della Ricerca Biomedica Secondo il Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 motivare il proprio team a rendere al massimo una questione molto pi complessa per le organizzazioni di una semplice concessione di incentivi finanziari L importanza di coinvolgere il personale e garantire il loro impegno discrezionale a dare il meglio di s fondamentale Rousseau 1995 2 definisce il contratto psicologico come un insieme di credenze circa gli obblighi reciproci che si instaurano tra il lavoratore e l organizzazione Questa convinzione scaturisce dalla percezione che esistano scambi di promesse alle quali le parti sono vincolate Il contratto psicologico ha contribuito a definire e illustrare alcuni elementi chiave che influenzano il rapporto di lavoro e l impegno del personale1 Nonostante ampie ricerche condotte da Rousseau e altri studiosi sui contratti psicologici nessuna associata a questo settore Sulla base del modello di contratto psicologico di Guest Conway 2002 3 e dei fattori che lo influenzano questa ricerca ha mirato a individuare gli obblighi del contratto psicologico deal pi importanti per i dirigenti degli istituti di ricerca sugli animali nell ambito della ricerca biomedica La ricerca dimostra che i rapporti di lavoro tra i dirigenti e la loro organizzazione sono estremamente instabili Gli obblighi fondamentali del deal quali la fiducia la formazione e lo sviluppo e la soddisfazione lavorativa sono stati violati con ripercussioni sulla fedelt atteggiamento e comportamenti del lavoratore La retribuzione e la sicurezza sul lavoro sembrano rispondere alle aspettative e risultano essere attualmente i fattori motivanti alla base della fedelt dei dirigenti di questo settore critico 168

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare TECH 2 TECH Haven t the time to write a paper but want to get something published Then read on This section offers readers the opportunity to submit informal contributions about any aspects of animal technology Comments observations descriptions of new or refined techniques new products or equipment old products or equipment adapted to new use any subject that may be useful to technicians in other institutions Submissions can be presented as technical notes and do not need to be structured and can be as short or as long as is necessary Accompanying illustrations and or photos should be high resolution NB Descriptions of new products or equipment submitted by manufacturers are welcome but should be a factual account of the product However the Editorial Board gives no warranty as to the accuracy or fitness for purpose of the product Avoiding the pitfalls of refurbishment how to give an animal technician a nervous breakdown JANET MERRALL Biological Service Facility London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street London WC1E 7HT Corresponding author janet merrall lshtm ac uk Adapted from Platform Presentation given at the Joint IAT LAVA Congress 2013 Summary This presentation illustrates the highs and many lows of refurbishing a Containment Level 3 animal facility solution extending to twenty four months Finally when the problems are resolved satisfactorily the return to the unit arrives Hopefully this will give those about to undertake the enormous task of refurbishment an insight and a what not to do guide to the process so ensuring a smooth progression It starts with the euphoria of the design stages moves to the more shaky stage of awarding the contract and deals with the day to day fun of when the builders move in and includes the dismay experienced when touring the building site you discover that the room doors are too small to pass essential equipment cabinets through and that there is the intention to paint over unprepared brickwork Introduction We need a new facility The presentation then moves to the re opening of the unit and the rapid discovery of the problem arising from poor workmanship These included a twelve month In 2005 it was decided that the Biological Services Facility BSF at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine LSHTM needed to be refurbished as we were having the following problems 169

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Tech 2 Tech G G G G environmental stability lack of temperature humidity control general poor state of repair unable to patch things up any more new equipment wouldn t work with services available Step 3 What happens next Very important to consider how was the work going to affect the operation of the facility Must ask the following questions G Solution Sufficient funding was not available therefore the proposal was G G G G install room heat cooling units and floor standing humidifiers to help with environmental conditions buy BSF a new cage washer to improve staff morale Stage 1 Step 1 Call in the Architects Architects appointed to begin designing the new unit to enable a quick start once funding available At this stage important to remember that G G G G planning takes a long time 2 years in our case so make sure you have it right ensure that the company engaged have experience of designing animal units check all references for previous work request several design drafts to enable everyone s agreement on final design essential to keep things realistic do not let them get carried away Step 2 Funding The job now goes to tender It is strongly recommended that as facility manager you are included in the decision of which company will be rewarded with the contract At LSHTM the manager was excluded from these decisions The following points are worth including in a check list to be given to the project manager G G G G vital to check supplied references so that you can actually see where they have previously worked and you are able to ask those establishments their project experiences Unfortunately at LSHTM there was no record of this being done once awarded if possible make sure that the personnel involved for the bid for the work are actually the team that carry out the work planning meetings as Facility Manager you must attend regardless of the call on time Insist on someone to chair meetings and that minutes are taken Took a year of meetings before work started Value Engineering Exercise VEE there is a risk that this can be a cost cutting exercise We found items that were cut as part of VEE had to be reinstated once building work was underway with a resulting increase in cost by as much as 100 over the original price than if included in the beginning 170 G G G will it be necessary to stop all animal work during refurbishment is it possible to phase the work so that you can keep working during the refurbishment will it be necessary to vacate completely and if so where to what is the time frame How long will it take must obtain a realistic time frame our 12 months completion time was in actual fact 60 months This is where the builders experience counts is there any leverage such as a penalty clause predicted finish date is not met Make sure it provides sufficient impact to encourage completion on time how will late completion affect the science if it occurs Stage 2 Step 1 Work commences The unit closed for research and everything was moved to rented accommodation on 19th April 2007 for 1 year Whilst all the main building work etc was in progress LSHTM staff was excluded from the site so had to rely on weekly meeting reports Eventually we were allowed on site although we had to pass a site safety test this is just common sense given the nature of the work and equipment that is in use during construction All staff entering the site were required to wear full Personal Protective Equipment PPE including hard hat fluorescent vest safety boots protective eye wear and gloves Unfortunately the first thing we saw was that any existing walls were just being repainted cracks divots and all Explanation was that we weren t asked to render any existing walls this statement came back to bite us later We also noticed that some of the door openings were odd which was raised at the next weekly meeting Points to remember G G ensure that a full specification and brief is drawn up and checked by the end users include minimum measurements for doorways including height insist that sur veys include external walls and guttering as this can seriously affect internal areas Step 2 Weekly meetings The purpose of these is that they are an opportunity to raise problems relating to the refurbishment in a timely manner This should be a two way process between builders project manager user representative etc

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Tech 2 Tech Usually consists of a series of reports and questions and answers e g Why are you not rendering all walls Because not included in specification Can you do it then please preceded by sharp intake of breath It ll cost you time and money Statement Get it done G G G G G G lumps of plaster were falling off the walls cracks were appearing in many places animal work had to be held to a minimum meetings were extremely heated affairs accusations were rife following duct insulation inspection out of 51 faults found 49 of them were down to poor workmanship However little progress was made as to how problems were going to be resolved Why are door openings all different sizes Because that s the size they were As everything is being re structured why weren t they made all a standard size Because that s the size they were Observation it is of little surprise that the costs for doors exceeded 145 000 as all new door frames and doors were custom made for each opening Conclusion State the obvious ask loads of questions during the planning phase as things you think may be obvious may not be obvious to others Stage 3 Two years later In July 2009 validation to ensure environmental conditions for animals complied with current Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures1 We were delighted to find that all rooms were performing as designed and holding temperatures and humidity within HO guidelines However the Home Office Inspector HOI for LSHTM noted that although all seemed up to standard there was a smell similar to rust in some of the rooms and asked for this to be investigated Figure 1 Early stage of the breakdown of the surfaces We moved back in to the refurbished unit in November 2009 and all was well until we hit an unseasonal it was winter cold spell when the humidifier failed to cope with the change in atmospheric humidity This resulted in some animal rooms humidity being held just within guidelines and some were well below recommended percentages i e 55 or 15 For some species extended periods below 40 or above 70 should be avoided In order to protect animal welfare cage racks were moved from room to room to wherever the most appropriate conditions were to be found The Mechanical and Electrical M E engineers were shaking their heads in disbelief and wringing their hands with worry as to how and why this had happened Furthermore signs of serious problems started to appear throughout the facility Figure 2 The wall finish was lifting off the wall revealing wet plaster underneath 171

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Tech 2 Tech Stage 5 The remedy G G G additional trays would be added to the humidifier to increase capacity all duct insulation would be removed and all joints in the ductwork would be sealed internally and externally all duct insulation replaced with higher grade material and procedures would be put in place to ensure that foot traffic on roof would be monitored teething problems but on the whole we are happy with the results But you will have to move out again Alternative accommodation was fortunately found and the facility was vacated again to allow the builders to return G G G all walls where cracks and blown plaster were stripped back re plastered correctly and covered with a formed sheet wall covering countless tests were carried out simulating all weather conditions on HVAC system hundreds of cause and effect tests were repeated and new ones carried out Figures 8 and 9 Fig 8 shows the same wall as Fig 1 and 4 but now with the new finish Fig 9 shows that we have actually moved in Conclusion What went wrong The team that the contractor entrusted to build the facility had NO experience of building anything of this type There was a sad lack of project management throughout the build on both sides contractor and establishment resulting in short cuts being taken Decisions being made on behalf of the contract without any consultation with customer resulted in a lot of extra work to correct which in turn affected the legal battle that inevitably ensued Many faults spotted by the animal staff leading to essential changes in order to make the building function There was a failure to follow up a survey of the existing structures which exposed problems e g the external walls of the facility badly needed repointing There was also damaged guttering running along the length of one wing discharging water down the wall and the missing mortar permitted water entry causing damp Current situation We moved back into our facility in September 2012 two years after the problems came to light However it is good to report that in the main the facility works well One major problem is that certain racks cannot be used in some rooms as they will not go through the doors As with all refurbishments there have been a few Figures 10 and 11 These photos show one of our now well equipped procedure rooms and one of our new isolator suites 173

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare The paperless animal facility ROB RUTTER R W Associates Ltd 5 South Parade Summertown Oxford OX2 7JL Corresponding author rrutter randw biz Adapted from Platform Presentation given at the Joint IAT LAVA Congress 2013 Is it possible to achieve a paperless Animal Facility The aim of this Presentation is to investigate if it is possible and practical to implement a paperless technologist environment for animal and procedure rooms First we must consider the problems associated with having paper in animal and procedure rooms Paper can be a source of infection it may need to be moved across a barrier allergens may be transported into clean areas of the facility Paper based instructions can often be incomplete not validated in error lost or destroyed not signed by the relevant authority Writing on paper takes time and pens get lost stop working pencils break can be erased Written data often has to be keyed into a computer system two unnecessary calls on people s time are you one of those people even if you are not time is still lost someone may need to read your writing Time lost could be used more productively Whilst data is being written down and being added to a computer database it s important to know what are you NOT doing For example not undertaking two of your primary duties i e G G What happens to the paperwork when the technologist has finished G G G G Keeping records on paper means Difficulties in circulating paper records between ever yone concerned e g Managers Researchers Certificate Holder Security of paper based data is a problem single copy fire flood risk could be accessible to unauthorised people What types of data exist in a BSU environment G G G G G G ASPA licences ASPA Record keeping CPD Records breeding records work orders notification and responses to Researchers What are the routes of data transfer in the animal facility environment G G G looking after the animals in your care and increasing animal welfare Effective electronic capture of data refines the animal technologist s job role and suppor ts the 3Rs Reduction Refinement and Replacement sent to the office filed accumulates dust difficult to access the data quickly to check e g training and competency ASPA transgressions could occur G one to one emails post it notes telephone messages some technologists will be aware of requests others may not be no one receives messages actions can be missed handwritten instructions on cage labels can lead to disputes incorrect disposals potentially no signed off audit trail 175

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Tech 2 Tech What are the potential benefits if this data were held and referred to electronically G G G Researchers the data could be used to guide the researchers to easily raise ASPA validated digitally signed work orders via the web with 24 7 accessibility Technologists an intuitive process would be made available that allows the technologist to record their work as it happens it would automatically record and manage all stock breeding and procedural activities Enterprise and Unit Management it would be able to provide managers with all the data they need to manage their work objectives system would undertake any billing system would undertake HO reporting system would be able to monitor and manage all work queues flowing through the units Step by Step guide to how it can be achieved G researcher raises orders at their place of work relates to a project and animal strain A disposal instruction the researcher is already authenticated we have their digital signature they can only dispose of animals they or their team have in stock Computers should mean paperless G G G G G G G they should provide fast accurate data compilation and retrieval they should be networked to keep ever yone informed data should be accessible both inside and outside the barrier therefore reducing foot traffic data should be instantly retrievable for audit purposes good systems help not hinder system must be intuitive easy to use little or no training required good examples are an ATM or cash teller machine debit cards How can such a system save time and make life easier G G G G it should allow the researcher to develop the data not the technologists or management they can only do this if provided with intuitive web tools any system should ensure that any web request is ASPA Home Office EU compliant it should automatically route work requests no bits of paper to mislay misdirected emails or missed phone calls make it easy to record work a few screen touches little or no typing and no writing necessary cage labels automatically produced no time consuming filing of paper records researchers are automatically advised of their work orders being completed updates to their breeding and experiment records 176 G G the order is automatically routed to the relevant location room it appears in the technologist s waiting order queue the order identifies the cage of animal s it relates to cage is retrieved from the rack and brought to the work area

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Tech 2 Tech Where would RFID Barcode readers be placed G G where activities with animals are undertaken animal rooms procedure rooms they can be portable medical trolleys etc Delivering RFID Barcode support in the workplace Figures 1 and 2 represent two different delivery methods that we have developed with clients G the on screen instructions are carried out the identified animal s are boxed out for the researcher as each one is transferred from the cage to the carton then the check box is touched once all four are in the carton G the save button is touched This saves the transaction and stock is adjusted charges are raised if required compliance reporting records are raised a full audit trail is maintained G cage goes back on the rack or sent to the cage washer if now empty job completed Figure 1 Cage Change Cabinet How can the data about cage contents be automatically brought to the screen A Radio Frequency Identification RFID chip can be placed within the cage As the cage is withdrawn from the rack and brought to the work area the chip will be automatically read Its unique ID is used to bring details of the cage contents identification from the database to the screen Alternatively individual animals could be chipped where relevant Barcodes are also suppor ted as one or two dimensional Or a combination of technologies 178 Figure 2 Mobile medical trolley

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Tech 2 Tech Where other peripherals can be attached G G it should be possible to link to products such as weighing scales digital callipers any data that should be saved to a database immediately available to the researchers Has any paper been used G Yes Failure However cage labels are a current Home Office requirement and must be produced for relevant transactions labels should also be supplied for biopsy sample bags and Eppendorf tubes these are not required if a Transnetxy interface is used Apart from labels no Success G all stakeholders have been immediately informed of activities via web clients researchers enterprise and unit management G where exceptions occur e g recording of health issues the NVS NACWO Researcher and Project Leader could optionally be informed via automated email Exception reporting is good G if stakeholders get too many automated emails from a system then they tend to ignore them by deleting them or adding a rule to their spam filters Automated e mails should only be raised in exceptional circumstances to advise of health issues pain threshold breaches unexpected dead or dying animals project ver tebrate usage reaching agreed limits Figure 3 Android tablet with inbuilt scanner A smart phone with a Bluetooth barcode scanner would work just as capably Second record when any tank is assigned to a rack row column second technologist app container position update used each time a tank is setup taken down or moved Third a web application used to find tanks of interest before or during a visit to the aquarium using either a PC or smart phone Mapping the room G G the App would run on a hand held tablet PC that should be moisture and drop proof wipable with alcohol has some sort of scanner set a start aisle rack row and column scan and record each slot s unique identifier Noting where the tanks are New trends a case study Everyone has Apps on their phones are there any Apps for technologists G A scenario you run an aquarium with five thousand tanks used by over one hundred researchers how do you your technologists or the researchers find tanks of interest in the aquarium Three steps First map the aisles the racks within them the rows and columns within a rack First technologist App Rack Setup would only be used during commissioning of new rooms G when a tank is established cleaned down or moved use the hand held tablet to scan its unique code scan the slot s unique code the map is then updated Finding tanks of interest A web client is provided to G allows the mapping data to be queried over various criteria e g species project genotype owner A report is produced showing where tanks of interest are located within the aquarium This App could be run on 179

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare A defined training programme something no one should be without CAROL FOX Learning Curve Development Ltd PO Box 140 Ware Hertfordshire SG9 0ZN Corresponding author carol learningcurvedevelopment co uk Summary Examples of information that would be useful include This article will outline simple steps towards creating an induction pack training record and training programme for new members of staff in order to develop animal technology skills and continuing professional development throughout their career G Introduction Thirty years ago the role of an animal technician was relatively basic minimal technology and a distinct lack of training and records With the same dedication to care and welfare of animals still paramount the job of the Animal Technologist has evolved to be considerably more diverse Science and technology now play an increasingly vital role Predicting future trends and areas of research is not an easy task and as a training company we are well aware of just how difficult this can be For example until recently many facilities used to be multi species whereas now single species units are more commonplace This article will suggest how to develop a training programme for new technologists from induction through to continuing their professional development Mentors Some establishments have set up a buddy system and this person is identified before the new technologist commences employment G G G G G G G provide a summary of the departmental roles and facilities including husbandry welfare and training experimental support veterinary provision Home Office liaison map of the facilities key colleague list with their role work location and contact details emergency procedures such as fire alarms fire alarm tests evacuation First Aid provision and incident reporting Other basic information such as security salary hours of work break times holiday allowance and booking overtime working and sickness absence reporting are all pieces of information that the new starter needs for future reference Training schedules and records Having a training schedule and a record in place gives both the employer and the trainee direction The schedule indicates what training topics should be completed by set time points e g first week first month etc and completion of these offers the trainee set goals and a sense of achievement with each completed task Below are a few suggestions of what could be completed within the first month Handling sexing and restraint Use of balances From personal experience providing a mentor for the new colleague is a key part of their training and wellbeing Mentoring is not a skill that everyone has therefore it is important to assess candidates for their suitability Ideally the mentor will have good people skills and the correct work ethic Animal identification Daily Animal Health observations and monitoring Cage and rack changing Enrichment programme Facility documentation Induction pack To help the new member of staff settle in quickly and become familiar with their surroundings people and policies an induction information pack is a very useful tool This should explain their role within their establishment for providing high quality laboratory animal science in the research environment Housing and environmental requirements Feeding Supply of animal drinking water Cleaning equipment requirements and cleaning schedule 181

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Tech 2 Tech Further training could include Animal restraint G G attendance at internal external workshops seminars meetings etc Continuing Professional Development CPD recording Procedures for sick moribund and dead animals Study documentation Schedule 1 Dose calculations Facility technical equipment These should be kept up to date and readily available for review by Home Office Inspectors or representatives from other external regulatory bodies Training records can be electronic or paper based or a mixture of the two There are a number of examples of recording training and competency see below Licensed procedures Many examples of more advanced training throughout an animal technologist s career can be completed either internally or by attending the many available courses and workshops organised by external course providers The training record should indicate successful completion of the tasks Standard Operating Procedures SOPs and or training documents can be used to define tasks giving detailed instruction and guidance of the task and competency requirements These are ideal to ensure consistency in working practices and to maintain high levels of husbandry and animal welfare Each training document should have a set of questions which could be asked during the on the job assessment The training record should indicate G G on going and completed training certificates of achievement for additional training Figure 1 Example of a training database Figure 2 Example of paper based training records 182 Experience shows that a three stage training process is a good model to follow as can be seen in the following examples Level 1 Working Under Supervision This records the start of training in a particular activity The trainee will work under supervision for a varying period depending upon ability opportunity and the complexity of the task The level of supervision generally relaxes as training progresses and the trainee gains confidence and proficiency Level 2 Competency Assessed Competence Achievement of abilities skills and knowledge This section is completed once the trainee has been assessed as competent to complete the task without supervision and meets the competence criteria in the training documentation Ideally the assessor will not be the trainer however this is not always possible in a small facility Level 3 Competent as a Trainer This records the individual as appropriately experienced to provide training assessment in specific tasks

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Tech 2 Tech Trainers and assessors A good trainer assessor will be experienced and competent in the tasks they are demonstrating G G ideally they have taken a train the trainer type of course have an aptitude for it and can relate well to trainees regular review of trainers and assessors is essential to ensure standards are upheld G work based projects including new techniques new species report writing etc Conclusion The initial effort of preparing induction packs training records and schedules will establish a good career path and give the establishment a well trained workforce Trainers need to have the skills to understand why training is needed know what makes effective training understand competence and differing questioning techniques as well as different teaching and learning styles There are a number of providers of such training Directive 2010 63 EU places a greater emphasis on training and CPD for licensees and makes attendance at workshops and short courses more of an important activity This ensures knowledge on advances of animal welfare and new invocations in technology are kept up to date and CPD is maintained In house training Acknowledgements The first week is often filled with inductions meeting key people and familiarising new staff with the facility Before the trainee commences their first animal duties it is vital to ensure they understand the importance of adhering to health and safety rules and the correct use of PPE for the protection against Laboratory Animal Allergy LAA and other hazards Thanks to Martin Heath Ian Garrod Fiona Jameson for their kind assistance and input with writing this article External training and Continuing Professional Development CPD Studying an appropriate Institute of Animal Technology IAT course would benefit a trainee by providing the theoretical background to the practical skills they are learning in the workplace This in turn benefits the employer giving them a skilled professional member of staff There are a number of providers offering flexibility in training via classroom or correspondence courses Further reading Jarvis L 2013 Competence of Personnel who work with Laboratory Animals Lab Animal Europe Vol 13 No 8 3 4 http www lasa co uk PDF position_education_training pdf Fox C and Garrod I 2005 Training Records and In vivo Training is Refinement and Good Practice Animal Technology and Welfare Vol 4 175 176 Fox C 2011 Promoting Flawless Animal Care and Welfare Through Quality Training Programs Animal Technology and Welfare Vol 10 1 5 CPD starts on commencement of employment for everyone working in laboratory animal science Directive 2010 63 EU places a greater emphasis on training and CPD for licensees and therefore makes attendance at workshops and short courses of great importance it is essential that accurate records of CPD credits are maintained CPD can also be gained through G G G G G G reading IAT journal or scientific papers posters etc internal external training courses conferences IAT Congress and meetings including Branch educational meetings presentations demonstrations at any laboratory animal science meeting Home Office modular courses distance learning home study including relevant journal articles books etc 183

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Animal Technology and Welfare December 2013 Going Green in ARES BRIAN GWYNNE and DAVID ROBINSON MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Francis Crick Avenue Cambridge Biomedical Campus Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB2 0QH Corresponding author bg mrc lmb cam ac uk Adapted from Platform Presentation given at the Joint IAT LAVA Congress 2013 Introduction Figure 1 The Ares Building situated to the south of Cambridge on the Babraham Research campus The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate the process management at Medical Research Council MRC Ares Building followed to reduce the impact the use of the building has on the environment and to share our experiences Description of each area in building entrance for staff and clean animals laboratories for microinjection and cryopreservation Genetically Modified GM production and breeding Production of new GM lines Rederivation Continuous breeding Holding for long term studies G experimental Medium term and acute studies Behavioural testing Quarantine and Containment Level 2 with entrance for dirty animals Specialist procedure rooms visual imaging plethysmography isotope carcinogen irradiator and behavioural testing G caging cage of choice is Tecniplast Safeseal GM500 commonly known as Greenline The cages have a loft incorporated within it as a means of escape during significant flooding events and as an enrichment item We worked with cage manufacturers to design a cage lid and loft to suit 95 of cages in use are on automatic watering G G G G air flow conditioned air from room into IVC AHU Exhaust air to thimble in ceiling panel The Ares Building provides a purpose built research resource for MRC Centre in Cambridge primarily the Laboratory of Molecular Biology but also houses other MRC units Frequently asked questions about ARES G G G G single storey 3 300m2 approximately excluding plant phase 1 will hold 35 000 mice in around 11 700 cages plus quarantine further 900 cages Total 12600 phase 2 will hold a further 20 000 mice 6 700 cages staff facilities large staff room with meeting facilities Natural light wherever possible e g into staff rooms offices and corridors 184 Figure 2 IVC showing exhaust thimble

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Tech 2 Tech The major emphasis was on using as much automation as possible to make a safe and pleasant working environment for staff and provide good welfare for animals the ultimate aim being to provide an excellent resource for science at MRC Centre Cambridge reduced to 1454 per month on average with a consequent saving of 700 per month The average total waste equals 4 365 tonnes per month since April 2011 We did not intend to reinvent the wheel and where others had gone before us e g MLC with best practice we followed their example e g IVCs and isolators for containment and robotic cage washing for ser vicing cages Automated cage watering was installed throughout and by working closely with our suppliers Tecniplast and Edstrom we refined the system to maximise its reliability and efficiency MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Green Committee Waste Disposal and Recycling Graph 1 Cost of waste disposal Ares Water Savings Area RO water for animal drinking 7000 auto 500 bottles Plant AHU condensate Consumed To drain Recycled RO reject and Filter back flush All To drain Before April 2012 4 16 After April 2012 80 88 Saving 1 226 000 L 4 8 Saving 1500L day for 7 months each year 295 000L Total Annual Saving since April 2012 1 521 000 L Figure 3 Waste disposal routes G G G G G G recycling for non hazardous waste paper and cardboard recycling plastic and glass recycling general rubbish including food waste collected by council service majority of soiled bedding is composted separate arrangements for hazardous waste Ares Bio Waste Management Graph 1 shows cost of disposing of Ares waste via the two main routes i e Composting soiled bedding at a cost of 27 5p per kilogramme Incineration carcasses hazardous waste sharps waste from quarantine at an average cost of 54p per kilogramme Prior to April 2011 the average monthly cost of incinerating waste was 2150 per month Following the introduction of waste composting in April 2011 the combined cost of composting plus incineration was 186 Figure 4 Energy costs

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Tech 2 Tech It is clear that many laboratories and offices in the building leave many items of equipment turned on 24 7 There is a high cost of wasting energy not only in terms of financial implications but the effects on the environment and our planet by the exponential production of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels Travel for work and travel plan The MRC Units on the campus and therefore all members of staff are full members of the Cambridge Travel for Work Partnership which is dedicated to delivering and promoting sustainable and healthy travel to work Energy saving trial MRC Ares Figure 6 12 hour air reduction Background to trial Home Office CoP Ares GM500 IVC s 15 20 Air Changes per Hour 21C 2C 55 RH 10 Over 20 ACH in Holding Room 65 70 ACH in IVC s Conditioned air from Holding Room Positive pressure Extract to ceiling thimble Figure 5 Home Office CoP and how Ares compares Reduction in Holding Room ACH will give best savings G G G Objective to reduce by up to 33 for up to 12 hours overnight Four trials carried out 1 Nov 2011 2 hours for 4 days 2 Feb 2012 4 hours for 4 days 3 July 2012 8 hours for 4 days 4 Oct Nov 2012 12 hours for 28 days Home Office consulted throughout Figure 7 Space temperature average 4th Trial 8th October 6th November 2012 G G G G G G 12 hour air reduction by 33 over 28 days 19 00 07 00 hrs each day dark period 3 sample rooms T26 E29 and E49 with 1 selected IVC cage per room housing 5 6 adult males measurements room and cage temp and humidity to be recorded constantly during test period room and cage NH3 and room CO2 to be recorded using Dr ger tubes by spot tests measurements taken at end of reduced air flow period 06 30 07 00 hrs and during normal air flow at regular intervals measurement of allergen levels breeding and productivity figures recorded if any negative effects or observations made the trial will be stopped immediately Figure 8 Relative Humidity 187

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Tech 2 Tech Allergen Testing Ares Room and position of monitor Energy Saving Annual Estimated Saving Room T26 3m from back door 1 8 2 4 1 4 3 5 Room T26 4m from main entry door 2 2 2 0 7 2 2 Room T35 3m from back door 2 1 2 1 0 5 1 9 Figure 17 Estimated saving per annum Room T35 3m from main entry door 2 2 9 0 8 1 5 What next Room E29 3m from back door 3 4 3 7 1 7 3 4 Room E29 3m from main entry door 2 2 3 5 1 0 2 1 Continue 4th energy saving trial started 8th October 2012 G 12 hour air reduction by 33 on going G monitor room Temperature and Humidity G monitor breeding productivity G plan next allergen level monitoring Room E32 3m from back door 1 4 1 8 1 9 1 4 Next stage consider further extension of air reduction time 2 7 4 1 0 6 5 5 2 2 2 8 1 08 2 69 Not Detected Not Detected Room E32 3m from main entry door Average Plant Figure 16 Allergen testing The Health and Safety Laboratory HSL suggests Risk Assessment using a traffic light system where 5 ng m3 should require use of Personal Protective Equipment 190 Ammonia Levels in IVC measure NH3 in cages over 2 week cleaning out interval G compare different stocking densities G compare different beddings G preference tests G Conclusions G Regarding exposure to these allergens it is not possible to say that there is a safe level of exposure It has been reported that sensitisation and symptoms can be observed in staff persistently exposed to Mus m1 at 2 5 ng m3 G G going greener has so far been a positive experience at Ares helped by being a modern stand alone building other facilities are following our example Acknowledgements ARES Engineering team managers and all ARES staff

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Are you ready for a disaster A thoughtstarter paper about Business Continuity Planning BCP CAROL SMEE and LYNDA WESTALL Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Genome Campus Hinxton Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA Corresponding author law sanger ac uk Introduction In this paper we are not talking about Craig Revel Hor wood on Strictly Come Dancing stating that someone s performance was a disaahster but your own facility s plans for what may turn out to be a real disaster situation We ask Have you got plans in place Could you cope with an extreme bolt from the blue wiping out most of your facility such as an explosion or fire Or a creeping slow onset situation that begins to cause problems for example a fuel shortage or flood Who else needs to be involved in your BCP and what exactly is a disaster A disaster is usually referred to as a situation where it is not possible to recover normal working conditions within 48 hours However individual establishments may want to issue a variation to this definition depending on the type of work they are undertaking and the ramifications of different situations Hopefully a real disaster will never happen but it is important that you have a well thought out plan just in case and that this is written down so everyone involved has a document with instructions to refer to Haven t we all been a little bit too close for comfort at times In fact maybe the early stages of a BCP need to be invoked in normal situations such as severe staff shortages Are long term trends in our climate showing more extreme highs and lows that affect plant and services and therefore the possible welfare of the animals and do we seem to have to deal with the effects of these extremes more regularly This paper is a thought starter it does not set out everything you need to know as each establishment will have its own key issues to consider It does however give you some things to think about and ideas for desktop scenario testing Your BCP things to consider G Levels Your BCP can be broken down into different levels for example Major or Minor events Major events could affect much of your site and involve many people including casualties such as a large explosion Minor events are dealt with rapidly by a few people for example a chemical spill G Timing It might be helpful to consider response to a disaster as having 3 phases which overlap These might be Incident Response what happens immediately Who are the first points of contact Business Continuity can business or part of the business continue operations What are the priority activities and ser vices which must continue What can be shut down Can you continue to operate with only a few key staff Recovery how will you get back to normal operation What activities require re establishing urgently Figure 1 shows an example Incident Response Timeline to illustrate the timing of the phases outlined above G Coordinating committee You might decide you need a Disaster Committee made up of a group of senior individuals These individuals will have responsibility for specific areas or functions within a large site and these responsibilities should be published so that all staff are aware of these This committee is usually convened within 24 hours of a major disaster and coordinates the response The Committee is the central point of contact other staff will report in to it it defines priorities such as key stocks experiments and irreplaceable biological resources agrees actions and assigns staff to undertake them Priorities should be assessed as a cost versus benefit analysis with a strong focus on animal welfare G Cascades and key staff Ensure that you have a list of key staff and their emergency contact details These would usually be 191

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Tech 2 Tech held by site Security the HR department and or a senior manager Cascade lists ensure that everyone who needs to know about a situation gets told A list of key staff within a 5 mile 10 mile radius of the facility might be useful What about plans for staff to car share in an emergency if not already doing so G Other teams If you work on a large multi disciplinary site you may need a site wide BCP as well as a local BCP for your facility Desk top scenario testing can bring together staff from different teams and improve interactions and understanding between staff involved It might be possible to identify staff from other areas that could assist your area in a BCP situation and vice versa G Scenario testing training and communication Although things will never go exactly as they did in a scenario test the over arching processes will be similar regardless of the specifics of the scenario Testing your plans helps highlight where there may be gaps brings the plan to everyone s attention and helps staff in other teams understand your facility s priorities You might even like to carry out mini scenario tests with smaller groups such as individual teams It is important that these scenario tests are carried out at least annually to ensure the BCP processes are regularly reviewed and updated and people do not become complacent with them The basics of the BCP i e what immediate action should be taken should be communicated to all staff Consider posting FAQs on an intranet page and perhaps sending annual reminders to staff by email or other routes on the BCP Communication to your Home Office Inspector on what is occurring or is about to will need to be carried out where a situation has the potential to affect animal welfare Discussions with your Inspector while the BCP is being written will be useful in identifying when and how often the Home Office may want to be kept informed and what information they will require suppliers have their own BCP in place to ensure uninterrupted provision of key consumables Are there alternative suppliers available Do other establishments use the same supplies that you might borrow from i e food or bedding Could you use alternative diets How much of the key consumables can be kept on site and how long will this last If the cage wash area is automated can you undertake manual cage washing and water bottle changes and for how long How about alternatives for key utilities such as electricity other fuels and water If your site is serviced by a company to remove the clinical waste produced what plans need to be in place if this is delayed for a week or possibly longer G Site specific considerations Each BCP will differ especially regarding the following parameters G geography of site G one site or multi site G one facility on site multiple multi use facilities shared facilities G size of facility site G number of personnel and job roles G staff training G interaction with other facilities ser vices on same site G species of animal and number key stock levels G cryopreservation regimes G building fabric barrier G infection control barrier breach protocols G Recovery Do not forget to include a plan to get things back to normal after the incident has been dealt with Consider G barrier breaches G animal health screening G prioritising research programmes so they can be brought back on stream in order of priority G de brief staff G think about lessons learned revise action plans and BCP documentation Pandemic supplement G Off site storage alternative facilities Are there facilities for storage of cryopreserved stocks Are there alternative places where staff can work or meet Can live animals be kept temporarily off site perhaps share accommodation at another establishment and has this potential been discussed with your Home Office Inspector G Suppliers and supplies Does your supplier have a local depot where emergency supplies of animal food and bedding stocks can be obtained at short notice Do your 193

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Tech 2 Tech You might like to consider a supplement to your main BCP documentation which focuses on action to take should a pandemic arise It might be helpful to think about what action would be taken at 2 different levels of pandemic Low Level Numbers of people affected cases are low and individuals time off work is short There are few severe cases i e there are few hospital admissions of people under 65 years of age Disaster Committee is convened High Level Number of hospitalised cases is significant number of severe cases including deaths is significant Staff absences are longer in duration than normally expected In order to gauge at which level your Pandemic BCP is operating good data collection regarding staff absences is essential Information from Public Health England should also be used to assess the situation at a national level Examples of desk top scenario tests Below are two examples of desk top scenarios the first is one that would affect the whole site including the animal facility while the second is directed mainly at the animal facility What would you do 1 Fuel shortage Day 1 Newspapers are reporting the possibility of a fuel shortage diesel petrol and oil supplies may be affected Day 2 Panic buying of fuel at the pumps is causing shortages especially in larger towns Day 4 Most petrol stations in local area are out of fuel and the remainder are running very low and limiting individual fuel purchases External contractors are having trouble getting on site Day 7 Courier and contracted deliveries have stopped Deliveries to site stores have ceased 20 of site staff are working from home Day 8 Taxis are not operating Site buses are not operating 40 of staff are attempting to work from home On site Nursery has had to close due to lack of staff Day 9 70 of staff are attempting to work from home Government states fuel only available for critical supplies only Day 11 Power cuts are affecting site as power stations go off line intermittently Emergency generators are using up the remaining fuel Power keeps going on and off affecting freezers and lab containment facilities 3 weeks after Day 1 Fuel levels getting back to 194 normal Power is mostly back on line What are the main points in your Business Recovery Plans What revisions will you make to your BCP 2 Autoclave and cage change robot breakdown and concurrent infection outbreak Day 1 The 2 main autoclaves into the barrier area have been having intermittent break downs over the past couple of weeks These 2 autoclaves have now stopped completely The problem appears to be sheared pipework to these two units caused by overpressure of the steam line H S inspection of damaged line and investigation of fault will delay rectification of fault expected repair in 1 week s time Day 6 Over the last few days technicians have noticed an increase in pre weaning loss in some colonies of mice i e mortality rate is increasing Technicians also notice offspring with diarrhoea in the same colonies as well as some others and flag to NACWOs The death rate of mouse pups continues to increase within colonies Day 9 Autoclaves repaired Off site diagnostic lab has confirmed mouse hepatitis virus MHV infection in some specific colonies fur ther investigation shows all affected colonies to be linked to same tumour cell line Day 17 Major ingress of water from condensate from boilers has flooded into the computers for the cage change robot which has stopped working Repair is not expected for 3 days Day 18 No findings of MHV in quarantine areas Sentinel animals have not showed up MHV Day 21 Cage change robot engineer arrives and fixes robot Day 23 Increased screening of mice is indicating no further spread of MHV How would you have dealt with these situations in your establishments What work if any would be scaled down or stopped How would staff be redeployed or borrowed from elsewhere Who else would need to be informed When would the Home Office be informed Where might the contamination of MHV have come from Are all barrier procedures water tight in your facility How can the IAT help Do you want to know more about BCPs or need help in putting yours together Perhaps a workshop could be arranged during Congress or a presentation given at an IAT regional symposium to address this topic IAT meetings could give us all the opportunity to get together with other establishments to discuss working together in the face of disaster

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Making use of a laser pointer as training and enrichment tool a discussion by the Laboratory Animal Refinement Enrichment Forum ANTHONY FERRARO1 REBECCA BRUNELLI2 STEFANIE L NELSEN3 GENEVIEVE ANDREWS KELLY4 and POLLY SCHULTZ5 1 2 3 4 5 Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals 900 Ridgebury Road Ridgefield CT 06877 USA California State University 400 West First Street Chico CA 95929 USA SNBL USA Scientific Resource Centre PO Box 1638 Alice Texas 78333 USA Huntingdon Life Sciences Princeton Research Centre 100 Mettlers Road East Millstone NJ 08875 2360 USA OPR Coastal Primate Sanctuary 717 Harmony Dr Longview WA 98632 USA Corresponding author LAREF Moderator Viktor Reinhardt viktor snowcrest net Does anybody on the forum make use of a laser pointer when working with animals We had talked about using it as a targeting tool We wanted to get our rhesus macaques to test their water lixit on command instead of the caretakers having to put a pole through the mesh of the cage and push the tip of the lixit This routine procedure often frightens the animals quite a bit they sometimes grab the pole in a self defensive or aggressive reaction and struggle with the caretaker who then has to remove the pole by force Even if they do not grab it they often cower at the opposite side of the cage in a fearful posture We have used a laser pointer occasionally with rhesus and cynos just for fun Some really like it sliding their hands along a surface trying to grab the light point Some just check it out a bit and ignore it after a short time It seems that the younger monkeys are more interested than the older ones Schultz Back when I was the enrichment tech at my last job I trained one cynomolgus macaque to check his lixit with a laser pointer My current position does not give me the time to do this kind of work but I think it could be incredibly valuable plus would serve as a great form of enrichment for the monkeys We thought it would be a great idea if we could have the monkeys target their finger to a laser light point then transfer it to the lixit and finally fade out the laser or even continue to use the laser if necessary Sadly our idea never came to fruition because it was argued that it would not be worth it to invest the time necessary to train all the rhesus monkeys at the facility so hard to change those traditional perceptions I am curious if anyone in our forum has successfully trained nonhuman primates to test their lixits themselves As a side note my two house cats absolutely love the laser pointer they chase the light dot all over the house I usually do not do it for more than 5 10 minutes a couple times a week to avoid a gradual loss of interest in the game Brunelli Figure 1 Rhesus Macque responding to laser pointer 195

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Tech 2 Tech an average of four sessions 7 of the 8 rhesus 88 and 13 of the 15 cyonomolgus macaques 87 checked their lixits on cue In the beginning the laser pointer was still needed but eventually phased out a verbal cue was then sufficient to prompt the animals to check their lixits 1 I have also used the laser pointer to target macaques prompting them to move from a dirty cage to a clean cage or to enter a chute Additionally it has been my experience that the laser pointer is a great enrichment tool using basic target training you can entice a monkey to explore an activity cage and participate in physical activity as well Nelsen Acknowledgements Photographs by courtesy of Anthony Ferraro Figure 2 Laser pointing at Rhesus Macque s finger Reference 1 At home my cats love the lasers too but strangely enough my dogs are terrified of it Andrews Kelly We have successfully trained with a laser pointer at least one cyno in each pair group to target to their lixits Currently this stands at about 35 cages housing a total of 63 animals We no longer need to check the lixits with poles Most of the animals no longer even need the laser and will check the lixit upon a verbal command and a simple hand gesture It is fun to watch the animals as the technician goes around the room and all the animals are checking their lixits themselves At home our cat loves to chase the laser It is his absolute favorite activity and can keep his attention for over a half hour if I do not get bored with it by then Our dog loves the laser as well but once we stop playing he becomes slightly confused and anxious and looks around the house for it so we stopped using this type of enrichment for him Ferraro I trained eight rhesus 6 males and 2 females and fifteen cynomolgus 12 males and 3 females macaques to check their lixits using a laser pointer as the target The macaques were already familiar with me and eight of the cynos had been pole and collar trained by me I first conditioned each macaque to the sound of a clicker bridge by clicking and providing a food reward This was followed by introducing the individual to the laser pointer either on the side of the cage or the back of the cage When the macaque touched the laser point on the cage I clicked the clicker and provided the animal with a reinforcement treat After the animal consistently touched the laser point on the cage wall or the back of the cage the laser point was moved to the lixit Training sessions lasted 5 minutes or less After 196 Haba Nelsen S L Bradford D and Houghton P 2010 Laser lixitTM training an alternative form of target training that can be utilized in the daily husbandry care of rhesus macaques Macaca mulatta and cynomolgus macaques Macaca fascicularis American Journal of Primatology Vol 72 Supplement 27

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Recruiting animal technologists It pays to avoid the common pitfalls CLAIRE BELL NORMAN MORTELL and TIM McGUIRE Agenda Resource Management PO Box 24 Hull HU12 8YJ Corresponding author email agenda rm co uk Introduction Your organisation s employees are one of your biggest assets Without the people that make up your organisation it would soon cease to exist The cost of recruiting staff will often be high whether that is replacing employees leaving the company or taking on new staff This is just one reason why it is so impor tant to get the recruitment process right Recruiting Animal Technicians where the new person will bear considerable responsibility for animals in their care presents its own unique challenges and makes it vital to attract the right person In this article we will provide guidance for recruiting new staff from defining what type of person you need through to inter viewing and making the choice between applicants Identifying your needs Taking the time to accurately define your recruitment needs at the start of the process will pay dividends during both the shortlisting and interviewing stages Perhaps you are short staffed and need to fill a vacancy urgently and the temptation can be to rush into finding a replacement quickly Whilst getting a person in at short notice may seem like a problem has been solved getting the wrong person can be costly in many ways including time spent dealing with poor performance and additional costs in recruiting again for a replacement Here are our tips in identifying your needs 1 Have a clearly defined job description for the role What will the main duties be in the position What will the person spend the bulk of their time doing Having a clear job description will help you describe the role to prospective applicants having no job description may leave you struggling to sell the role to jobseekers or giving different versions to different people 2 Have a clearly defined person specification for the role Identify the qualifications and experience you would expect the person to have to be able to per form the job role competently For trainee animal care roles do you expect the person to have animal care qualifications such as BTECs or NVQs or would good grades at GCSE level or equivalent suffice What type of experience does the person need to give them a chance at doing the job well Establish what qualities you consider to be essential to the role and you would not consider applicants without those qualities Establish what qualities would be desirable for the applicants to have but if they did not you could provide relevant training Perhaps your organisation already has job descriptions and person specifications in place which is great as it gives you a good starting point Take the time to review any existing job descriptions and person specifications to ensure they still accurately reflect the role and your requirements Following these steps will help you establish a clear framework for identifying suitable candidates for the role once they have applied comparing candidates objectively and also provides a fair basis for rejecting unsuitable applicants A good recruitment process ensures a consistent and fair process for each person and having a comprehensive job description and person specification is the first important step Candidate attraction Attracting suitable candidates to apply for your vacancy is essential at the same time consideration must be given to whether your job advert will attract unwanted attention or unsuitable candidates and so care is needed when wording the advert The choice of how and where to advertise your vacancy is limitless and dealing with incoming candidate enquiries and applications is a time consuming process Here are some options for you to consider 1 Encourage applications and recommendations from current employees This method will produce fewer applicants but you will have the advantage of your current employees recommending them and therefore having some prior knowledge and understanding of the person s background and experience 2 Advertise the role on websites There are plenty of 197

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Tech 2 Tech websites you can consider from general jobs boards such as Totaljobs to more specialist sites such as jobs ac uk and New Scientist This method of attracting candidates can be costly but should produce plenty of applicants for you to consider 3 Advertise the role in specialist publications This method may be more appropriate if your vacancy requires more experience or specific skills For example the Institute of Animal Technology IAT Bulletin aimed specifically at animal technology professionals would be more appropriate to target more experienced Animal Technicians 4 Use social media Sites such as Twitter Facebook and Linked In have grown in popularity for job advertising in recent years Behaviour of jobseekers is always changing and increasingly they are fitting in their job search around their daily lives by using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets 5 Use a specialist recruitment agency Agencies often have well established processes for attracting candidates and some will have databases of suitable candidates seeking positions If an agency advertises on your behalf it is often included in the fees and your organisation can remain anonymous behind the agency advertising if security and or anonymity is are important research you conduct your focus on welfare and attractive information such as location staff facilities and benefits Your choice of advertising medium will ultimately depend upon how visible you want the vacancy to be how wide a range of candidates you want to consider and the budget you have to spend on advertising Job advert Once you have chosen where to advertise your vacancy putting together a good job advertisement is key to attracting the right candidates Below is a sample advert Typically jobseekers look at 3 key factors when deciding whether a role is going to be suitable for them 1 Job title 2 Location 3 Salary The words you use to describe your vacancy are also important but the candidate may not bother to read those unless they are satisfied that the 3 areas above meet their initial needs On the sample advertisement you will also see a brief description of the role and information for candidates on what qualities they need to possess to be considered Just as defining your needs was important clearly articulating these needs to jobseekers is also vital so they can determine whether it is worthwhile for them to apply for the vacancy If you have space on your advert it is also useful to say something about your organisation an overview of the 198 Figure 1 A sample job advertisement It is important not to write the advert in such a way that it is impossible to see that you are seeking a person to look after the care and welfare of laboratory animals Security is an issue though and so a positive statement about high welfare standards and that applicants will be fully security screened may be appropriate Shortlisting candidates Once you have accumulated a suitable number of applications for your vacancy you need a consistent and fair way of deciding which applicants you want to consider further Some applicants may appear to be a good match to your criteria others may appear to match some of the criteria but possibly not all and further some candidates will clearly not meet your requirements The work you did at the beginning of the process determining what qualities were required which were essential criteria and which were desirable will now be put to good use You may find it useful to work to a scoring system when looking at each applicant s CV to determine how many of the criteria they meet and to make it easier to compare the applicants CVs This will keep your process of assessing applicants fair and consistent

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Tech 2 Tech In addition to determining which applicants meet your selection criteria you should also be on the look out for any red flags apparent in an application Red Flags refer to any warning signs that might give you cause for concern One or two in isolation may have a good explanation but several may render the application undesirable for your vacancy Examples of some red flags to look out for include G G G G G gaps in employment history changing from an unrelated career path to animal technology without a good explanation e g hairdressing willingness to take a large drop in salary from a previous role without a good reason changing from a senior role to a relatively junior position without a good explanation providing referees that appear to be friends or family members rather than current and former employers Telephone or video interviewing As you are reviewing applications try to identify a manageable number of applicants you want to consider further and to telephone interview before you decide upon a formal inter view shor tlist Telephone interviewing is a good way for you to connect with the applicants in the first instance ensure they understand the role and your requirements and to gauge their communication skills A telephone interview will also give you the opportunity to talk to the applicants about Animal Technology if they are new to the career area and to answer any immediate questions they may have Here are our suggestions for what to include on your telephone interview 1 Before you start it is useful to develop a template of questions that will be used for all applicants with space to record the details of the person the interviewer date time and responses The template should be a guide but as with all good interviews space should be left to explore responses that warrant further discussion 2 Provide the candidate with a basic overview of the role so if it is a Trainee position that their main duties will be caring for animals involved in medical research 3 Ask the candidate about their views on the use of animals in medical research A candidate may look fantastic on paper if they have relevant animal care qualifications and experience but if they fundamentally disagree with using animals in medical research the role and environment is not going to be suitable for them If a candidate is unsure about the role we would recommend directing them to useful resources such as the IAT website and career information as well as the Understanding Animal Research web resources It is better to send a candidate away to research the career area and ensure they understand the role first before proceeding 4 Do not be afraid to tackle any misconceptions applicants may have about the role for example they may disagree with using animals for cosmetic testing and not realise this type of testing is not conducted in the UK 5 Talk generally about the candidate s motivations for applying for the role and why they believe they are a suitable candidate This is often a good opportunity to get the candidate talking and to further gauge their communication skills Use the telephone inter view to screen out any applicants that may be unsuitable for logistical reasons For example if your site is inaccessible to nondrivers you need to establish early on which applicants would be unsuitable The use of Skype or pre determined interviews on Video are becoming more popular options for pre selecting candidates for a formal interview but this needs to be managed in an appropriate setting for both parties Face to face interviewing Your telephone interviewing activity should have filtered out any candidates who deemed the role to be unsuitable for them either in terms of the duties salary or location and those candidates that you deemed unsuitable Of the remaining candidates you will now need to identify a suitable number to invite to a more formal face to face inter view We would recommend anywhere between 3 5 candidates is an appropriate number If you have more than this number of candidates left look back at how the candidates scored against the essential and desirable criteria Then consider how the candidates came across during their telephone interviews Who performed well in your opinion who articulated their reasons for applying well and gave a good account of their skills and experience All of these factors should help you in identifying a suitable number of candidates to invite to a formal interview Before inviting the shortlisted candidates onto your site for an interview consider carrying out a basic security check on each applicant Security screening companies provide this service to organisations to give them peace of mind that the person they are bringing onto their premises does not pose a security risk This is particularly important if the interview is to take place within the research facility and or a facility tour is included in the interview process Interviews are an important method of determining whether the applicant you have sitting in front of you can meet the needs of the role It is therefore important to ensure you make the right decisions 199

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Tech 2 Tech beforehand and get the process right Here are our top tips 1 The interview should take place in an uninterrupted setting a drink should be offered and the interviewee welcomed and relaxed Small talk is always a good way to get started for example ask them about their journey this may also help determine the person s ability to get into work for example at weekends 2 Ensure that you introduce the interviewers and their role in the interview explain the process you will be following and when it will be appropriate for the interviewee to ask questions You could also start with a summary of the role and a short explanation of the organisation to ease the applicant into the process 3 Decide upon your interview format in advance and how many interviewers you want to include We would always recommend using more than 1 interviewer even if one person serves as the primary interviewer and the other as note taker Using two interviewers will give you a better picture of how the candidate performed if each person notices different strengths and weaknesses The note taker or observer can also pick up on any body language signals 4 Deciding upon the inter viewers themselves is equally vital Ideally one of the interviewers should be the line manager for the vacancy or someone closely associated with the post so that they have a direct understanding of what is required and both should have had sufficient training in how to conduct interviews in a fair consistent and legal manner Interviewers need to be aware of what questions they can and cannot ask for example questions relating to marital status or religious beliefs are not permitted 5 The interview structure should be the same for each candidate including the same questions to ensure consistency and fairness You may find it useful to use a scoring or weighting system to rate the interviewees responses to each question in an objective manner When you come to choose between the candidates this will provide an objective and fair way to make your decision 6 Pay attention to your inter view seating arrangements This may seem trivial but it can impact upon the overall tone of the interview For example having several interviewers sitting behind a desk facing one interviewee can be intimidating for the applicant For observation of body language it is preferable for one interviewer to have a side on view if possible 7 Try to use a combination of open and closed questions during your interview Closed questions generally require a direct response or yes or no answer whereas open questions require a more detailed response and will help the candidate give 200 detailed answers Open questions will start with either what who where when why or how 8 Consider including other activities in addition to the interview For example you may find it useful to have the candidate complete basic literacy or numeracy tests Providing a tour of the workplace can also provide interesting insights Often the interviewee will let their guard down when being shown around and you can ask your staf f conducting the tour to gauge their interest level and engagement about what they are being shown 9 Conclude the inter view by thanking the candidate and asking if they have any remaining questions Before they leave you may need to take copies of relevant documents such as identity working visas and qualifications if you have not already done so and finally let the candidate know what will happen next and when they should expect to hear from you NOTE You may identify an unsuitable interviewee early in the process but it is recommended that rather than draw the interview to a close quickly you use the time to extol the virtues of your organisation the research and the high welfare standards and so on The person will not get the job and whilst he or she may be disappointed he or she will be able to tell others of the excellent work that you do Coming to a decision Now that you have inter viewed your shortlist of candidates you may have a clear favourite to offer the job role to or you may have a difficult choice to make Ensure that you use your scoring system to compare how the candidates performed at interview how well they answered the questions and let this help you make your choice Do not forget to listen to your instincts as well Your preferred candidate may have scored highly when answering interview questions but a good personality and or team fit is often as important and is not as easily assessed with an interview score Security checks Now that you have offered the job role to your preferred candidate your organisation will have paperwork to be completed including provision of an offer letter confidentiality agreement and contract of employment to the applicant and perhaps arranging an occupational health check Consideration should also be given to what level of security screening you need for the person prior to them joining your organisation The following diagram summarises different areas of an animal facility what access an employee may have to animals and sensitive

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Tech 2 Tech data and the level of risk this presents should access be given to an undesirable person Summary Throughout this article we have given you a step by step guide on how to recruit for your job vacancy A summary of this process can be found below Appraisal Annual Re Screening Induction Contact Contract Confidentiality High Animal Area Medium Admin Low Grounds Full Background Check 12 Additional Checks RtoW Face to Face Interview Experienced Trained Interviewers Pre Interview Background Check 10 Checks including Identity ARC Internet Telephone Interview Including Security Qs Figure 2 Security levels and access CV Application Work History If you are filling an Animal Technician role even at a Trainee level you should strongly consider conducting a comprehensive security check on the person prior to them starting their employment The process will include checks on the person s identity right to work in the UK whether they have a criminal record and internet mining checks amongst others Other checks include a telephone security inter view with the applicant reference checking including that the referees are genuine and checks on qualifications Completion of a robust security screening will provide peace of mind that your new employee does not present a security risk and has their duties to care for animals as their first and only priority Red Flag Analysis Figure 3 8 stage recruitment process As stated at the beginning of the article recruiting the right person for a vacancy is so important especially where animal care and welfare standards are at stake Following the process we have outlined will help you avoid common pitfalls in the recruitment process and ensure a fair and consistent experience for the applicants Welcoming your new starter You ve done a lot of hard work so far in attracting and recruiting the right person for your vacancy The hard work does not stop once your new recruit joins you Having a good induction process to welcome them into the organisation is crucial to reduce the chance of the person leaving the organisation in their first few days and to embed the new recruit in the company culture from the moment they join you Every organisation will have their own unique way of welcoming their new recruits but as a minimum your induction should include G G G G G G issue of any security passes required health and safety briefing e g location of fire exits introduction to company benefits and documentation e g pensions information holiday forms introductions with the team general housekeeping e g location of canteen facilities car parking WC etc schedule of training and who will be responsible for the new recruit 201

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Animal Technology and Welfare December 2013 AS ET SPECIAL TRAVEL BURSARY 2013 ESSAYS Winning Entry What do you regard as the most important issues in optimising the care and welfare of laboratory animals SHARON JONES UCB Celltech 208 Bath Road Slough Berkshire SL1 3WE Corresponding author sharon jones ucb com The modern concept of animal welfare employs the presence of positives incorporating ideas about needs feelings stress and health1 This has replaced the outdated definition of the Five Freedoms which considered good welfare as the absence of negatives i e freedom from pain injury and disease2 It is important to provide laboratory animals with a high standard of care and welfare because healthy wellcared for animals are an essential prerequisite for sound science3 4 2 The purpose of this essay is to propose and evaluate the most important issues in optimising the care and welfare of laboratory animals Initially the different types of legislation will be discussed and how this impacts on animals across the globe Next housing and husbandry conditions will be examined and how they affect animal welfare After that the different forms of environmental enrichment are reviewed and how they can improve well being Then the importance of the animal technicians will be explained Finally the conclusion is presented illustrating the various issues that affect the care of laboratory animals with a final word on the most important issue concerning laboratory animal welfare There is specific legislation in place that covers the use of animals for scientific purposes In 1985 the US Congress amended the Animal Welfare Act of 19665 They enacted two laws containing provisions for the care and use of animals in research with the main focus on competence of personnel involved in animal experimentation Revisions of current legislations have also been under consideration in individual countries such as Canada New Zealand China Korea and Brazil6 In the UK the new EU Directive 2010 63 EU 202 was recently adopted amending the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 It is aimed at strengthening legislation improve animal welfare and firmly anchor the 3Rs principle to Reduce Refine and Replace the use of animals in research It is a positive step for animal welfare that the EU Directive has been implemented into national legislation by all 27 European Union Member States6 yet the variance of standards between other countries is still a cause for concern This is especially true for those whose regulations have not been clearly formulated or implemented6 7 which could lead to the transfer of animal based studies to those countries with weaker requirements3 Experts from around the world that attended an international workshop organised by the ILAR in November 2003 proposed there should be an international benchmark for animal welfare3 I agree that the harmonisation of welfare standards would have a positive effect on laboratory animals owing to the fact that animal science is a developing discipline Enhanced transparency between countries and the creation of a standardised legislation would ensure that any developments or discoveries regarding improvements on care and welfare could benefit laboratory animals on a global scale Housing and husbandry conditions within a laboratory have been shown to have a major impact on the health and welfare of the animals8 9 Environmental conditions such as temperature humidity ventilation lighting and noise should be stable in order to reduce the possibility of causing unnecessary stress4 10 11 There are legal requirements regarding the quantity and quality of accommodation12 but in order to optimise

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AS ET Special Travel Bursary 2013 essays animal welfare I believe emphasis should be placed on exceeding the legal minima It is essential that animals are able to perform the widest possible range of normal behaviours and therefore housing and husbandry should be designed to satisfy the different requirements of each species It is also important to consider other factors that can influence the optimal housing conditions for an animal such as its age health reproductive status and the impact of scientific procedures8 Failure to acknowledge the importance of these factors can result in abnormal behaviours such as stereotypies prolonged periods of inactivity and heightened aggression1 12 13 14 all of which indicate poor welfare Therefore regular reviews of housing and husbandry practices are essential to ensure necessary improvements are made Equally important to the quality of housing is the quality of those conditions an essential component of the overall laborator y animal care programme9 Environmental enrichment is increasingly appreciated as a way to enhance the well being of animals15 whether it is through internal objects and structures social relationships and or stocking densities4 For example Rochlitz 2000 9 has argued that an enclosure with separate functional areas and a complex internal structure allows the cat some control over its physical and social environment to develop more flexible strategies for coping with stimuli Rochlitz 2000 p3 Many laboratory animals mice rats rabbits guinea pigs cats dogs farm animals are highly social species and therefore benefit from group housing and social interaction16 4 They are able to create micro environments social hierarchies and exhibit behaviours that are not possible when housed singly17 However caution must be placed on the stocking densities of individual species since mice in particular Balb c housed in groups of eight animals displayed considerably higher levels of aggression than those housed in groups of three18 which is not providing the optimal care and welfare Since it is crucial for an animal to manipulate and exert control over its own environment19 4 the primar y aim of enrichment is to provide sensory and motor stimulation through physical exercise manipulative activities and cognitive challenges20 Not only does it facilitate the expression of species specific behaviours but it also promotes the psychological well being of the animals15 I believe it is important to continuously evaluate the use and preference for environmental enrichments because essentially it is for the animals benefit and aids in the continual quest to improve welfare Arguably the most important factor in optimising the care and welfare of laboratory animals is the personnel involved in their care Animals within a research facility are completely dependent on the competence of the staff 7 therefore they should be sufficiently educated trained and motivated to perform their duties to the highest degree20 It is their responsibility to ensure the animals are examined with sufficent frequency to maintain general health and well being and this is especially important when the animals are undergoing scientific procedures4 Consequently staff should be thoroughly trained and competent in correct animal handling and restraint in order that checks can be carried out with minimal stress to the animal Additionally a fundamental confidence when handling an animal established through regular contact is also imperative to lessen stress levels4 It is also a prerequisite that caretakers are knowledgeable and familiar with an animal s basic needs and requirements9 This is because an awareness of what constitutes normal behaviour enables the caretaker to identify and address abnormal behaviour and monitor the effectiveness of change9 Positive reinforcement training has also been widely effective to improve the well being of animals The benefits include diminished stress on the animals reduction in anaesthetic use increased safety of attending personnel and enhanced enrichment for the animals21 Some laboratory animals even actively seek out interaction with their staff and organise their daily activity patterns around those of their caretakers9 Therefore I believe the knowledge and care of the laboratory staff is perhaps the most important issue since it appears to have the largest impact on the welfare of the animals There has been a great deal of research emphasising the optimal care and welfare of laboratory animals since not only does it increase their well being but it also improves the reliability of the science The 3Rs principles are firmly anchored into legislation yet there are varying degrees of standards between institutions and different countries which leads us to believe there are varying standards of animal welfare Enhanced transparency and harmonisation of standards on a global scale would be a step towards improvement because ultimately it is the animals who deserve the benefit Yet essentially we should be striving to go beyond the legal minima in order to provide the optimum housing and enriching conditions Each species and animal should be provided the opportunity to perform natural species specific behaviours in order to promote the highest standards of welfare and most advantageous psychological well being This is where the caretakers knowledge and training comes into play because it is they who have the most influence to make any necessary improvements With the knowledge and familiarity of what constitutes normal behaviour they are the first to observe any departure from health and can therefore make steps towards improvements Thus there are many issues concerning the care and welfare of laboratory animals but the care and attention provided by the animal staff is the factor that can have the highest impact 203

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AS ET Special Travel Bursary 2013 essays References 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Broom D 2007 Welfare in relation to feelings stress and health Volume VIII No 12B Online Available http www veterinaria org revistas redvet n121207B BA018ing pdfb Accessed Wolfensohn S and Lloyd M 2013 Handbook of Laboratory Animal Management and Welfare 4th ed West Sussex Wiley Blackwell Demers G et al 2006 Harmonization of Animal Care and Use Guidance Science 312 700 701 Online Available http fbae org 2009 FBAE website images PDF 20files biosafety Harmonization 20of 20Animal 20Care 20and 20Use 20Guidance pdf Accessed 15th April 2013 Home Office Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 Code of Practice for the Housing And Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures London HMSO Publications Centre Animal Welfare Act Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966 P L 89 544 http www nabr org Biomedical_ Research Oversight Animal_Welfare_Act aspx Bayne K 2013 Research animal welfare a progress report on global convergence of standards Lab Animal Europe 13 5 3 Zutphen B 2007 Education and Training for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals An Overview of Current Practices ILAR Journal 48 2 72 74 National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research NC3R 2013 Housing and Husbandr y online Available http www nc3rs org uk categor y asp fid 1 catID 42 10th April 2013 Rochlitz I 2000 Recommendations for the housing and care of domestic cats in laboratories Laboratory Animals 34 1 9 Milligan S Sales G and Khirnykh K 1993 Sound levels in rooms housing laborator y animals An uncontrolled daily variable Physiology and Behavior 53 6 1067 1076 Peterson E 1980 Noise and laboratory animals Lab Anim Sci 30 2 422 39 Dean S 1999 Environmental enrichment of laboratory animals used in regulatory toxicology studies Laboratory Animals 33 309 327 Wolfer D et al 2004 Laboratory animal welfare Cage enrichment and mouse behaviour Nature 432 821822 Wurbel H 2001 Ideal homes Housing effects on rodent brain and behaviour Physiology and Animal Husbandry 24 4 207 211 Smith A and Corrow D 2005 Modifications to Husbandr y and Housing Conditions of Laborator y Rodents for Improved Well being ILAR Journal 46 2 140 147 Hetts S et al 1992 Influence of housing conditions on beagle behaviour Applied Animal Behaviour Science 34 1 2 137 155 Whary M et al 1993 The effects of group housing on the research use of the laboratory rabbit Lab Anim 27 4 330 341 Pascalle L P et al 2001 Modulation of aggression in male mice influence of group size and cage size Physiology Behavior 72 675 683 Baumans V 2005 Science based assessment of 204 20 21 animal welfare laboratory animals 24 2 503 513 National Research Council NRC 2010 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals 8th ed Washington DC The National Academies Press Laule G Bloomsmith M and Schapiro S 2003 The Use of Positive Reinforcement Training Techniques to Enhance the Care Management and Welfare of Primates in the Laboratory Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 6 3 163 173 Suggested further reading Baumans V 2005 Environmental Enrichment for Laboratory Rodents and Rabbits Requirements of Rodents Rabbits and Research ILAR Journal 46 2 162 170 Broom O and Johnson K 1993 Stress and Animal Welfare London Chapman and Hall Carlstead K Brown J and Strawn W 1993 Behavioural and physiological correlates of stress in laboratory cats Applied Animal Behaviour Science 38 143 58 Randall et al 1990 Sounds from an animal colony entrain a circadian rhythm in the cat Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research 21 55 64 Karsh E and Turner D 1988 The human cat relationship In The Domestic Cat the Biology of its Behaviour Turner D and Bateson P eds Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 159 77 DeLuca A and Kranda K 1992 Environmental enrichment in a large animal facility Laboratory Animals 21 38 44

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare POSTER PRESENTATIONS Originally presented at The 12th FELASA SECAL Congress 2013 and reprinted with the permission of both organisations and the authors Approaching animal welfare from a global corporate perspective MARILYN J BROWN Charles River Laboratories International Inc 251 Ballardvale Street Wilmington MA 01887 USA Corresponding author marilyn brown crl com Introduction At Charles River we wanted to assure that the ethical care and use of animals remains at the heart of all the work we do It is helpful for every institution or company to have a core value or position statement to anchor the animal care and use program From this anchor we implemented activities which enhance a culture of caring G G G G G G specific training about ethics animal welfare humane care and the 3Rs continuous open communication about the animal welfare topics reinforcement of the message recognition of excellence in the area of humane care establishment of appropriate programs for environmental enrichment and behavioural husbandry increased awareness of the 3Rs and the importance of implementation of the 3Rs A strong program starts with senior institutional officials and includes middle management a group solely dedicated to animal welfare The Animal Welfare and Training Department AW T and in the case of a global organisation a network of such individuals at every location Animal Welfare Specialists In our organisation these individuals have other duties and report to someone at the location but they formally serve as a liaison with AW T and are appointed by the CEO Figure 1 Welfare programme hierarchy Training Orientation Our orientation is seen by all employees regardless of job description It introduces the role animals play in biomedical research and our obligations to those animals including mechanisms to report concerns The concepts of the 3Rs are also introduced and all employees sign a commitment pledge to humane care Reinforcement training In addition to duty specific training employees with animal related responsibilities have additional detailed training about animal welfare within the first 3 months of hire 205

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Poster Presentations Annual Animal Welfare Training is mandatory for all employees who have animal related duties Topics vary each year and have included such subjects as G G G G G G G G Begins with YOU flyer describing the mechanisms to report animal welfare concerns and make suggestions for improving animal welfare the ethics morals and values underlying our relationship with animals the effect of handling on various research models how EVERY member of the team can impact animal welfare how animal research models are created and what they do for us unique features of various species and how they impact welfare the importance of environment to animal welfare how animal welfare events are reviewed animal behaviour as an indices of animal welfare implementation of the 3Rs and engaging in the conversation about the use of animals in research After annual training employees re sign their commitment pledge to humane care All training is archived and maintained on our intranet for later use Communication On going communication about the importance of animal welfare keeps the culture alive In our company there are quarterly videos from our CEO which never fail to mention animal welfare In addition at site and even room level a regular item on the agenda is how we can enhance animal welfare These are two way conversations where staff are encouraged to participate AW T produces a quarterly Newsletter which shares great ideas coming from different locations as well as regular contributions on enrichment behavioural husbandry and the 3Rs Contributions are received from around the company globally As the web becomes a pervasive communication tool in our society having an animal welfare focused presence on the organization s intranet website is critical We use our site for announcements sharing information and resources such as training and articles providing real time details about our programs and downloadable flyers Targeted email blasts are used to alert our users when material has been added that may be of interest to them Included in these materials is our Animal Welfare 206 Figures 2 and 3 Animal Welfare Training network news

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare A risk based approach to reducing exposure of staff to laboratory animal allergens LYNDA WESTALL IAN GRAHAM and JAMES BUSSELL Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Research Support Facility Hinxton Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA Corresponding author law sanger ac uk Introduction Within the research and biomedical industry one of the many risks for staff working with small laboratory animal models is possible sensitisation and development of Laboratory Animal Allergy LAA which can lead to occupational asthma Reducing the potential for exposure of LAA is achieved in part by putting in place infrastructure and environmental controls and ensuring associated equipment is regularly serviced Although not a legal requirement in the UK at the Sanger Institute it has been found invaluable to monitor allergen levels to assess the effectiveness of the controls together with any refinements to these and for reviewing and updating risk assessments Often the levels of allergen detected are unpredictable The observed levels have helped to define the overall risk and additional Personal Protective Equipment PPE required for safe working in the animal facility G G G G G average weekly occupation of approximately 16000 IVCs during the past 3 years rooms are at negative pressure relative to the corridors air changes in holding and procedure rooms range between 16 and 22 changes per hour staff wear dedicated PPE scrubs safety shoes and mob cap additional PPE e g long sleeved gowns and gloves is worn when handling the mice Assuming that specific activities present a high risk level of exposure to allergens staff are currently required to wear respiratory protective equipment RPE to FFP3 level in addition to normal PPE for the following procedures G G G G cage changing procedures on live animals that are out of containment culling large numbers of rodents on downflow tables working in the cage wash area While there is disagreement as to what corresponds to a safe level of allergen protein Mus m1 in the working environment we have adopted a conservative figure of 2 5 ng m3 as the tolerable limit for the wearing of Respiratory Protective Equipment RPE General circulation areas such as changing rooms corridors and offices were considered low risk where staff are not required to wear RPE Background Method The Sanger Institute works predominately with mice that are housed in Individually Ventilated Cages IVCs and handled or taken out of cages in ventilated change stations Terminal procedures on the mice are carried out on down flow tables A subset of activities are carried out where mice have to be removed from containment i e behavioural tests LAA levels have been monitored within the facility for the past four years using two methods The following measures assist in preventing exposure to allergens G IVCs are kept at positive pressure to the rooms G G room or static monitoring where a sampler is set up in a room close to where an activity might release allergens personal monitoring where a sampler is attached as close as possible to the breathing zone on a member of staff undertaking the activity Examples of the areas and activities that are monitored for LAA are described overleaf 209

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Poster Presentations Case study LAA monitoring performed in January 2009 identified that the manual scraping of autoclaved cages gave rise to an extremely high personal reading A thorough analysis of the task was undertaken including the technique employed and the location of the task This resulted in the identification of additional training requirements and the repositioning of the local exhaust ventilation equipment used for the task which had previously been sited directly below an air supply duct Subsequent monitoring revealed a dramatic 97 decrease in the LAA levels to which staff were exposed July 2009 G G G bottle changing weaning ear marking for ID and genotyping Staff are not required to wear RPE As an additional improvement a new laminar air flow cabin was purchased in which to perform the task resulting in a further 75 reduction in LAA levels detected by personal sampling September 2010 Changes to autoclave temperatures and robot programming now enable these cages to be processed automatically eliminating the LAA risk to staff from this previously high risk activity Disturbed activities where cage bedding is significantly disturbed and includes cage changing duties such as G G transfer of animals together with some bedding from soiled to clean cages dismantling cage components Wearing of RPE is mandatory for all staff in room Animal holding rooms Undisturbed activities where cage bedding remains largely undisturbed and includes general duties such as Note the different scales on the y axes 211

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Poster Presentations Cage Wash G cage sanitisation performed by robotic system G removal of bedding materials from cages causes allergen release G robot line housed within enclosure G waste materials removed via vacuum system Wearing of RPE is mandatory for all staff in room while robot is in operation of engineering controls and the robustness of working practices in minimising risk of exposure and enabling a positive review of PPE requirements 2 The results presented here confirm that the LAA levels in corridors offices and changing rooms are all well below the adopted threshold value of 2 5 ng m3 with many observations being below the limit of detection 3 Static sampling of LAA levels in animal holding rooms suggests that staff within the room but not undertaking activities which pose an LAA risk see below do not need to wear RPE as is currently required 4 The use of personal monitors gives a more direct indication of the risk to individuals This has identified that activities in holding rooms which do not disturb cage bedding as well as some procedures elsewhere should require the wearing of RPE This has not thus far been compulsory and further monitoring will be performed to clarify any required changes to current practice 5 Results from cage wash which has long been regarded as a high risk area indicate a rapid decline in allergens as samplers are moved away from the robot waste bedding disposal point This suggests that the current practice of requiring all staff to wear RPE whenever the robot is operational may be relaxed for visitors under some circumstances This is still under consideration 6 The monitoring process has also informed improvements in infrastructure and technique as typified by the Case Study 7 While the establishment of LAA levels is an important step in risk assessment it is also important to continue a rigorous health surveillance programme to encourage compliance through education and training and to ensure that where RPE is required all staff have been fit tested for an appropriate mask 8 However low LAA levels may be continual improvement to enhance local controls is key to reducing levels and therefore risk as far as possible On going monitoring at the Sanger Institute is focussing more specifically on activities that we have established as high risk Discussion and conclusions Acknowledgements 1 Sensitisation to LAA is a significant and unpredictable health risk among workers in animal facilities Routine monitoring of LAA levels in our facility over a number of years has proved to be a powerful tool in establishing both the effectiveness We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of staff at The Cube Ltd for collecting and processing all of the samples 212

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Competency training in the laboratory animal science environment the triumphs and tribulations JENNIFER SALISBURY WENDY SKEEN and JAMES BUSSELL Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Research Support Facility Hinxton Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA Corresponding author jb21 sanger ac uk The European Union Directive 2010 63 seeks to harmonise the use of animals in scientific procedures across Europe Training and learning seeks to ensure standardised knowledge whilst competency assessment of individuals undertaking husbandr y care procedures and euthanasia ensures quality of practical skills In this poster we set out our preparations and experiences to date in implementing a competency framework for the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Research Support Facility European Union Directive 2010 63 dependent on the quality and professional competence of the G G G buddying of new technicians with experienced technicians standard Operating Procedures setting out work methods recording competency using a paper based training folder Areas for development were training standards stating the knowledge and skill required G appointed trainers deliver the training standard G assessment mechanism to establish the standard met by individuals G competency and refresher tracking system facilitating continuous assessment G a procedures on animals b designing procedures and projects c taking care of animals or d killing animals Furthermore it is important that staff are supervised in the performance of their tasks until they have obtained and demo A review of training needs Current published documents do not define how competency should be assessed making it challenging to implement and standardise the assessment of those training and being trained In order to understand our training needs we reviewed the processes approaches and documentation already in place Our findings were as follows actively educating our technicians in industr y recognised qualifications G Continuing Professional Development opportunities i e Congress NC3Rs Symposia G 213

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Poster Presentations Stages of implementation G identified trainers principal technicians and suite managers G provided bespoke Train the Trainer courses G define 10 compulsory competencies risk based list G promotion events to aid engagement G continuous feedback to improve the process and areas of development The 10 key competencies we focused on were risk based i e activities that expose the welfare of the animal if not carried out correctly G G G G G G G G G G daily checking of animal holding rooms understanding normal health conditions of mice monitoring and reporting of health concerns completion of Daily Record Book provision of water to mice provision of diet to mice handling and restraint of mice cage changing of mice weaning of mice end of day sign off of rooms The above competencies should be completed within the first six months of being within the facility and together with a comprehensive schedule of induction they ensure that the core principles and working practices have been instilled Compulsory Competency Training Project After reviewing our training approach we initiated a Compulsory Competency Training Project The training took a risk based approach and sought to educate current and new starters to an equal standard Training standard documents would ensure standardisation of operational areas and core tasks 214

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Poster Presentations Resources G G G G G G Training standard pack consists of front cover sheet title date version controlled standard operating procedure technician training notes trainer checklist defines competency criteria assessment G G engagement to a more controlled deliver y of knowledge and skills greater awareness of development opportunities and proactive uptake of these Future development extend the approach to encompass Licensed Procedures and euthanasia G develop bespoke content in the Institute s Learning Management System to support training G develop curriculum and career pathways for technicians G Training and development of staff requires a financial and time investment to deliver This is a challenge when balancing against the daily work commitments of all who need to be involved and contribute The rewards are measurable in the growth of an individual s knowledge and practical skills but also in the motivation culture and ethic of the team as a whole Acknowledgements Team 83 trainers assessors technicians and users Face to Face Training appointed trainer arranges a face to face training session with technician G the training standard and SOP is used as the reference G trainer uses the stated competency criteria to drive the training delivery G Discussion Benefits gained G review of practices and a harmonisation of these between operational areas G greater recognition of responsibilities and accountability for standard of work G documentary evidence of training and achievement of competency 215

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Animal Technology and Welfare December 2013 Cryopreservation of laboratory rodents as back up in case of disaster MARTINA DORSCH Institute for Laboratory Animal Science Hannover Medical School Germany Corresponding author dorsch martina mh hannover de Introduction Cr yopreser vation of embr yos and gametes of laboratory rodents to establish a genetic back up is a tool to guard against loss of valuable animal models Conceivable reasons are G G G G G loss of genetic authenticity inbreeding depression infections and or disease outbreak failures of facility equipment environmental disasters In addition cryopreservation of strains that are not under actual scientific use frees up space and reduces shelf costs Figure 1a Pros and cons of cryopreservation of different reproductive material Acceptable cryopreservation methods have to fulfill the following requirements Revitalisation success of cryopreserved pre implantation embryos G G G G it has to be reliable and validated for the respective samples the revitalisation ability of the frozen cargo has to be tested samples of one strain should be stored at two different places permanent cooling has to be guaranteed at any time Options for cryopreservation pros and cons Table 1 Revitalisation success of mouse embryos Figure 1 Comparison of the revitalisation success of cryopreserved embryos from different species 216

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Poster Presentations Revitalisation success of cryopreserved ovaries Table 4 Revitalisation success of cr yopreser ved ovaries The challenges of ovary cryopreservation are the size of the organ and the fact that it is composed of different cell types Also the developmental capacity of primary follicles that are in the meiotic arrest has to be preserved The final difficulty is to find an ovary recipient that accepts the grafted organ Table 2 Revitalisation success of rat embryos Table 3 Revitalisation success of guinea pig embryos Tables 1 3 A morphological intact embryos in after thawing B live born pups in after embryo transfer C number of strains with the respective genetic background Figure 3 Comparison of the revitalisation success of cryopreserved ovaries of mice and rats Left bars show the portion of ovary recipients that established normal oestrus cycle after ovary transplantation Right bars show the portion of ovary recipients that produced litter in Revitalisation success of cryopreserved sperm Figure 2 Comparison of the revitalisation success of cryopreserved embryos from different species Rat and mouse embryos 2 4 cell stage were frozen by a two step protocol with 1 5M PROH as cryoprotectant Directly after thawing they were transferred to pseudopregnant females to continue the development Guinea pig 4 8 cell embryos were frozen by the same protocol but with 2 0M PROH The exact conditions for embryo transfer are still under development Figure 3 Comparison of the revitalisation success of cr yopreser ved sperm in different sub strains of C57BL 6 mice JAX method Sperm frozen by the method described by Ostermeier et al1 pellet method sperm frozen by a method described by Dorsch2 Given is the fertilisation rate in after IVF i e development to the 2 cell stage 217

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Introduction to the international nomenclature of laboratory rodents JOHANNES SCHENKEL 1 2 and JUTTA DAVIDSON3 1 2 3 Cryopreservation German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ Heidelberg Germany Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology Heidelberg University Germany Charles River Germany Sulzfeld Germany Corresponding author j schenkel dkfz heidelberg de Introduction Example transgenic insert The number of genetically modified laboratory rodents is increasing enormously A clear identification of mutants is mandatory and today more important than ever Multiple generations of comparable mutations or double imports of mutants are not acceptable for many reasons and should be avoided However without following strict rules for the nomenclature it is difficult to identify correctly specific mutant lines Programme oriented funding as well as consortial projects leads to a major increase of double or multiple mutated lines making correct nomenclature very complex The international nomenclature rules allow the identification of specific alleles as well as the laboratories keeping a given line Only the correct use of the given nomenclature provides a unique identifier for a specific strain gene or allele and thus allows sufficient documentation of experiments and a clear communication with others B6 D2 Tg HPV11 lacZ 1704Aal Genetic background B6 and D2 incipient congenic N 5 or completely congenic N 10 mixed background Cg congenic STOCK unknown Type of mutation Tg transgenic insert Gene name according to MGI HPV11 lacZ Genes with endogenous promoter one Gene name cDNA constructs fused genes etc Promoter plus Gene coding sequences Example homologous recombinant In addition in many countries authorities require the use of strain and allele names according to international nomenclature rules Subsequently all staff dealing with genetically modified and mutant mice or rats should be trained to understand and apply these rules B6 129P2 En1tm1 Otx2 Wrst Genetic background B6 recipient 129P2 homologous recombinant ES cells The rules of nomenclature for all types of mutations are well defined and can be found on relevant web pages e g MGI http www informatics jax org It is highly recommended to register the laboratory of origin as lab code with the Institute of Laboratory Animal Research ILAR other lab codes are not reproducible To preserve the information of a given mouse line including or even especially of cryopreserved lines the correct use of the international nomenclature rules is crucial The generation and characterisation of a mutant is highly resource consuming animals staff and material The loss of a line or the need of additional experiments due to an unclear designation is unacceptable During our long term experience on this topic we address similar problems or mistakes observed repeatedly mutated gene En1 gene name according to MGI tm1 targeted allele Otx2 introduced gene in case of knock ins according to MGI Wrst Lab Code according to ILAR Frequently observed mistakes problems G G G G Genetic Modification not clearly defined wrong designation of the affected gene not according to MGI or other data bases no Gene ID laboratory of origin unknown wrong laboratory code not according to ILAR 219

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare The effects of changes in legislation on staff and researcher training in laboratory animal science in Ireland SYLVIA MEHIGAN ANNE BRAYLEY CHRISTOPH BLAU and PETER NOWLAN BioResources Unit Trinity College Dublin Dublin 2 Ireland Corresponding author mehigans tcd ie Abstract In house and outsourced education We present an outline on current policies surrounding both in house and outsourced education and training in laboratory animal science within our institution We describe the importance of education and training within our animal units outlining the increased need for further education and training of staff for their own benefit as well as to ensure compliance on regulated procedures We describe the methods used in ensuring that all researchers are highly educated and trained when it comes to working in an animal unit so that it enables good and responsible use of animals within research and strict adherence to the 3Rs Using examples of how empowering education and training can be to staff giving them the ability to be open to new ideas and enabling them to improve their working environment and that of the animal With the new Directive in EU and the new legislation in Ireland we show the difference between pre and post the new Directive and the impact it has on animal facilities showing the increase in paperwork and the depth of record keeping now needed Also discussed are how changes to animal units affect both the staff and researchers working within the unit We look at the procedures and documentation that we have put in place to record training as well as criteria we have for our staff and researchers doing further education and how we encourage both groups to actively take part All staff and researchers must do the LAST Ireland course be signed off for procedures that they have on their licences authorisations and we maintain a central information management database that captures the training and education records on an on going basis to enable easy retrieval of data during compliance inspections Increased need for further education and training G G G G G G G to have highly trained and educated staff and researchers ability to keep up with new techniques and equipment being up to date with improvements in animal welfare ability to help with Researchers training researchers on animal care and welfare being compliant with regulations having competent persons supervising Competency It is a requirement for those working under a competent authority s authorisation at TCD that they have undergone an accredited training programme to use animals in research The standard of training must conform to the programme content laid down by FELASA for categories A B C http www felasa org recommendations htm There are various programmes that can achieve this Examples are the modular training approved by the UK Home Of fice Documentary proof of having passed to an appropriate standard is required Supplementary modules on Irish law and policies may be required The acceptability of the training will be determined by the IMB Currently in Ireland the programmes available are LAST Ireland or NITG others may become available in the future 221

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Poster Presentations LAST Ireland LAST Ireland is a training programme and support structure to help the scientific community in Ireland to use animals in accordance with best international and national practices This course follows the guidelines drawn up by the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations FELASA for standards of training for those persons carrying out or responsible for directing animal experiments The course comprises two days of lectures and presentation after which a separate written examination and introduction to animal handling must be satisfactorily completed prior to a certificate being issued This course is recognised in the UK as meeting Home Office requirements for modules 1 2 and 3 in rodents of the licensee training programme Regardless of Licence status the course is highly recommended for all those involved in work with laboratory animals Training courses for researchers staff working with animals are run at least twice yearly in Dublin Courses also are arranged in Cork and Galway Universities in Ireland often accept the Modular training courses from the UK Dates and locations of courses run by the Universities Training Group can be obtained by application to sec last ireland org Website http www lastireland ie Example of empowerment brought about by training and Further Education We have several members of staff who have benefitted from further education by attaining IAT qualifications and learned new technique and in doing so were promoted within TCD For further details please refer to the staff training records table Legislation Post 2013 Pre 2013 the competent authority in Ireland was the Department of Health Children From January 2013 this role has been taken over by the Irish Medicines Board IMB The named persons bodies in the new Legislation are the user Compliance Officer Training Officer Named Veterinary Surgeon Named Animal Care Welfare Officer and the Animal Welfare Body Compliance Officer Under Regulation 44 of SI No 543 of 2012 states that each establishment that breeds supplies or uses animals shall designate one or more suitably qualified persons as compliance officer responsible for ensuring compliance with the provisions of the regulations 222 Training Officer As a result of the new legislation each animal facility must name a training officer The Training officer for Trinity College is Sylvia Mehigan The chief responsibility of the Training Officer is to make sure that all researchers and staff are trained correctly and training records are in place These records should be available to the competent authority during their inspections Animal Welfare Body In accordance with Article 26 of Directive 2010 63 EU and Regulation 50 of SI No 543 of 2012 each establishment which breeds supplies or uses animals intended for scientific purposes must have an internal Animal Welfare Body AWB with the primary task of focusing on giving advice on animal welfare issues The body should also follow the development and outcome of projects at establishment level foster a climate of care and provide tools for the practical application and timely implementation of recent technical and scientific developments in relation to the principles of replacement reduction and refinement in order to enhance the life time experience of the animals The advice given by the animal welfare body should be properly documented and open to scrutiny during inspections Each project authorisation shall name the persons responsible for the overall implementation of the project and its compliance with the project authorisation and with the principles of Replacement Reduction and Refinement Members of the Animal Welfare Body are Named Veterinary Surgeon Named Animal Care Welfare Officer Chair of the Bio Resources Committee and Compliance Officer Competent authority All researchers must be trained in the techniques they plan on implementing and must have individual authorisation Once individual authority has been received they can only carry out those techniques under supervision until signed off by the Training Officer that they are competent to work unsupervised Euthanasia In Ireland the IMB has stipulated that euthanasia must be performed only by persons appropriately authorised by the competent authority CA Before applying for euthanasia competency the person must be fully trained and signed off by the Training Officer in the technique to be used

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Good practice guide for the care use and breeding of laboratory animals in Cuba LAYNA RIERA 1 LLIANA SOSA1 DASHA FUENTES1 L ZARA MART NEZ PEREZ2 YUNEIDYS MENGANA TAMOS1 SAHILIS S NCHEZ STERLING3 ODYS HERN NDEZ VASALLO1 ANTONIO ALFONSO MORALES1 EVARISTO LVAREZ B RBARA GONZ LEZ MAR A ELENA ARTEAGA ROMMY ORPHEES REBECA CASTILLO ILEANA P REZ C NDIDA FORTE MIRANDA SONIA LUGO ANGEL ENTRENA MAR A CARIDAD ACEVEDO HAYD E LLANES CECILIA ORRET KATIUSKA RODR GUEZ NATACHA NEGR N MAIKEL GONZ LEZ and NIDIA FERN NDEZ 1 2 3 National Centre for the Breeding of Laboratory Animals CENPALAB Havana Cuba Centro para el Control Estatal de la Calidad de los Medicamentos CECMED Calle 200 No 1706 e 17 y 19 Reparto Siboney Havana City Cuba Centro Nacional para la Producci n de Animales de Laboratorio CENPALAB Havana Cuba Corresponding author layna riera cenpalab inf cu Abstract The procurement and breeding of experimental animals their use protection welfare microbiological categories and the establishment of ethical principles in experimentation have been subjected to national and international regulations In order to establish and standardise technical specifications related to these aspects the Guide to Good Practice for the care use and reproduction of experimental animals BPCURAL was developed This document can be used as a national reference for verifying the performance of good clinical and nonclinical practice and the activity of the Institutional Committees for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals IACUC respecting to facilities maintenance care and use of animals as well as for the training and qualification of the related staff The BPCURAL guide contains the following headings Introduction Definitions and Concepts Reach and Responsibilities Basic Specific and Ethical Principles in animal experimentation Institutional Programmes for the care use and breeding of laboratory animals and bibliographic and reference annexes This guide as a manual is par t of the quality management system for these experimental biomodels allowing performance of these tasks in the animal facility vivariums and institutions that use animals in experiments It meets what is established in the regulations standards and national and international codes making it applicable to all staff and structures which because of their work are directly or indirectly linked to the performance of tasks for the breeding and use of experimental animals Also it will harmonise the principles and criteria used in the national system of experimental animals in Cuba favouring the transparency in the process of inspections and accreditations Development 1 Institutions related to animal breeding regulatory entities and scientific associations have been working towards introducing the internationally accepted norms for the care use and breeding of animals as well as quality systems and their verification 2 In this sense Cuba required its own Guide of Good Practice that adapted to our own necessities and conditions and conformed to the internationally accepted criteria and which served as a reference for the Program of Verification of the GPL and the activities of the CICUAL especially in the confection of the Institutional Programme of the animal care and use 3 This Guide allow us to limit the use of the diversity of international references in this discipline in the country favouring transparency of the process of inspections and accreditations 225

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Poster Presentations 9 1 9 2 9 3 9 4 9 5 9 6 9 7 9 8 10 10 1 10 2 11 12 Figure 1 Increase in number and diversity of experimentation animals and institutions related to their use Results CONTENTS OF THE BPCURAL GUIDE 1 Introduction 2 Definitions and Concepts 3 Reach and Responsibilities 4 Basic specific and ethical Principles in the experimentation animal 5 Reception and admission 6 Quarantine and re adaptation 7 Acceptance of animals for use 8 Care and and maintenance for use 9 Maintenance and or breeding of laboratory animals G G Facilities Facility Cleaning and Sanitation Maintenance of animals Animal Handling Breeding and Genetics Veterinary Activities Health Controls Feeding Nutrition Staff Accreditation and Qualification Principles Qualification Bibliography Annexes Conclusions 1 BPCURAL Guide as a manual is part of the Quality Management System of CENPALAB allowing the performance of all the tasks in animal facilities vivariums and institutions that use experimental animals 2 BPCURAL Guide meets established national and international regulations norms and codes therefore it is applicable to all staff and working structure which are directly or indirectly related to the breeding and use of experimental animals 3 BPCURAL Guide allows the harmonisation of the principles and criteria used in the national system of experimental animals in Cuba Practical Code for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals 1992 Guide of Good Practices for the Care Use and Breeding of Laboratory Animals 2009 2011 Contents Definitions and Concepts Basic Specific and Ethical Principles in the Experimentation Animal Institutional Program for the Care Use and Breeding of Laboratory Animals 226

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Effects of thermal sterilisation on selected components of diets for laboratory rodents ANNA TUSNIO 1 M TACIAK1 M BARSZCZ1 J PARADZIEJ UKOWICZ2 I OL DZKA3 W WICZKOWSKI4 M SZUMSKA5 B PASTUSZEWSKA1 and J SKOMIA 1 1 2 3 4 5 The Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition Polish Academy of Sciences Jab onna Poland Medical University of Gda sk Tri City Central Animal Laboratory Gda sk Poland Medical University of Gda sk Gda sk Poland Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research Polish Academy of Sciences Olsztyn Poland Medical University of Silesia Zabrze Poland Corresponding author a tusnio ifzz pan pl Introduction Manufacturing of animal feeds comprises a number of thermo mechanical technologies such as pelleting extrusion or expansion which result in physical chemical and biochemical changes of their components Autoclaving is a convenient and preferentially applied method of sterilisation comprising steam pressure and heat treatment of pelleted feeds Heating at too high temperature and or over longer time leads to the depression of content and availability of nutrients particularly vitamins and protein and to formation of harmful components within Maillard reactions Objective of the study was to assess the effects of the two most frequently used autoclaving programmes on the content of minerals and vitamins and on formation of acrylamide in two experimental diets containing either soybean meal or casein low phytoestrogen diet and in an autoclavable commercial diet of unknown composition The isoflavones phytoestrogens in non autoclaved and autoclaved soya containing diet were also analysed Materials and methods Two natural ingredient diets containing either soybean meal HS or casein HC phytoestrogen free diet as the main protein supplements and a commercial autoclavable SN diet were autoclaved at 121 C for 20 minutes T1 and at 134 C for 10 minutes T2 Chemical composition of the diets including fibre fractions ADF NDF N NDF starch and sugars were determined The concentration of minerals Ca Mg K Na Fe Cu Zn and Mn was determined in mineralized samples by a flame air acetylene atomic absorption spectrometry using the AA 6300 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer SHIMADZU Japan Content of total and phytic phosphorus were determined The water soluble vitamins B1 B2 B6 C panthotenic acid and folic acid were separated by micellar electrokinetic chromatography The fat soluble vitamins A D E K were determined simultaneously using developed method of micro emulsion electrokinetic chromatography The acrylamide content was determined on Ultimate 3000 HPLC Dionex USA apparatus using Alltima C 18 5 m column Isoflavones phytoestrogens and their conjugates in HS diets daidzin daidzein genistein genistin glycitein glycitin 6 O malonylbeta glucosides of daidzein 6 acetyl glucosides of daidzein 6 Omalonyl beta glucosides of genistein and 6 acetyl glucosides of genistein using HPLC SHIMADZU Japan were determined Results 1 Autoclaving affected neither macro nutrients content except NDF nor minerals The increase of NDF and N NDF was greater due to T2 than T1 and was the greatest in SN 1 5 DM and the smallest in HC 0 4 DM diet 2 Water soluble vitamins B1 B2 and B6 were the least affected whereas panthotenic acid was depressed at T1 and T2 Fat soluble vitamins except tocopherol vit E were more affected by autoclaving at T2 than T1 program Vitamins A and D were the least stable but even the greatest vitamin losses did not exceed 50 Table 1 3 The increase of acrylamid concentration was greater in diets autoclaved at T2 than T1 and in diets HS and HC than SN Table 2 227

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Poster Presentations G Autoclaving had small effect on the total isoflavones content in HS diet tended to decrease by 5 and 15 at T1 and T2 and decreased concentration of malonyl genistein and daidzein glucosides Vitamin HS HC SN T0 T1 T2 T0 T1 T2 T0 T1 T2 B1 28 9 25 9 21 6 18 5 20 8 20 2 15 3 14 9 14 2 B2 13 3 12 4 125 8 11 6 14 3 12 6 12 2 10 4 10 1 B6 7 4 7 3 10 1 8 8 9 3 8 9 10 9 10 7 10 6 Panthotenic 23 3 12 7 24 4 22 7 11 6 10 1 25 7 25 4 23 1 NF 5 8 NF NF NF NF NF NF NF 37 5 41 8 33 9 41 5 25 3 39 1 36 7 36 5 NF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF 1 2 3 Water Soluble acid Folic acid Ascorbic 32 8 acid Biotin NF Fat Soluble A 182 0 152 0 101 0 168 0 155 0 115 0 100 7 91 2 76 9 D 34 2 24 8 25 5 35 8 25 4 20 6 38 0 26 7 E 89 0 76 5 75 5 76 5 76 0 76 0 146 8 130 1 123 0 K 24 9 22 6 21 2 26 6 22 8 19 2 29 1 25 4 27 3 25 2 1 non autoclaved 2 autoclaved at 121 C for 20 minutes 3 autoclaved at 134 C for 10 minutes Table 1 Vitamin content of diets following autoclaving 1 non autoclaved 2 autoclaved at 121 C for 20 minutes 3 autoclaved at 134 C for 10 minutes Table 2 Effect of autoclaving n acrylamid concentration T Conclusions Effects of autoclaving depend on the dietar y composition and that longer autoclaving at lower temperature is less detrimental than shorter at higher temperature Acknowledgements Financial suppor t from the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland No NR12 0035 06 228

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Emergency solution in BioModule facing an air conditioning supply failure CLARA MU OZ MEDIAVILLA 1 2 S SALAZAR1 A D AZ2 E MU OZ1 V GRANDA1 and ISABEL BLANCO1 1 2 Spanish National Cancer Research Centre CNIO Melchor Fernandez Almagro n 328029 Madrid Spain Charles River Laboratories Spain Corresponding author cemunoz srv cnio es Introduction Materials and methods BioModule is a modular laboratory concept which allows for the rapid construction of a workspace that is able to meet and uphold stringent bio containment and biosecurity requirements for the housing of laboratory animals Since 2003 at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre CNIO BioModules are used to weekly receive and maintain imported rodents Pierced hosepipes were placed in loop shape over the BioModule Figure 2 and continuous water supply was provided Figure 3 Ice was also introduced inside causing cooling of the environment when evaporated A mobile cooler was fitted in the air conditioner system taking advance of the exhaust air ducts Figure 4 temperature inside the BioModule was equilibrated and monitored during those two days Figure 1 BioModule compressor functioning Figure 2 Pierced hosepipes were placed in loop shape over the BioModule In July 2010 T 40 maximum 20 minimum one of them suffered an air conditioning supply failure caused by a compressor breakage The BioModule affected is used to house importing rodents before rederivation The Emergency plan included animal transfer to other concerted facility However transfer co ordination lasted two days during which an increasing temperature inside the BioModule had to be controlled Objective Development of a quick optimal and monitored strategy which allowed lowering the temperature to suitable values until animal transfer could be effected Figure 3 Mobile cooler was fitted in the air conditioner system 229

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor Communication Communication Communication In the discussion paper Reducing severe suffering by Penny Hawkins from the Research Animals Department Science Group of the RSPCA published in the August issue of Animal Technology Welfare Vol 2 2 pp 87 91 there was a suggestion to set up an online chat room for animal technologists As the Chair of the Communications Group I thought that it would be useful for the Institute of Animal Technology IAT to respond positively and promptly to the suggestion by providing a short update on IAT communications The IAT believes that effective communication and networking between members is essential for the transfer of best practice and development of new animal care and welfare initiatives The recently produced IAT communications strategy published as a series in the IAT Bulletin includes many multi channel opportunities to facilitate and encourage such communications The strategy includes the increased use of social media such as IAT Linked In and Facebook groups The IAT also has an established website revamped in 2012 which includes options to discuss items directly with members of IAT Council and a members section which includes a discussion function The new IAT e newsletter developed in 2013 is another good example of the IAT trying to reach individual members and to provide alternatives to the traditionally published Bulletin and Journal Animal Technology and Welfare publications which are still highly regarded by members Whilst a lot has been done the Institute will not rest on its laurels and welcomes ideas and suggestions to keep the momentum going Initiatives such as the youth reps meetings assist in this regard as do the surveys to Congress attendees to members on communication and to seek employers views all help the IAT to shape future communication but if you have any other ideas or suggestions we would be happy to hear them Sincerely Norman Mortell BA Hons MIAT RAnTech Chair Communications Group Institute of Animal Technology Email communications iat org uk 231

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Letters to the Editor Dear Editor I recently read the Poster Presentation of Rebecca Varrall et al entitled Maximising operational and research activities through the use of disposable caging Animal Technology and Welfare ATW 2013 12 2 2013 pages 136 137 As Ms Varall s poster mentions me I feel that it is my duty to send the following comments to you as publisher in order to clarify some misunderstandings reported in the aforementioned poster in Sentence before Conclusions page 137 i e however recycling and waste to energy programmes that reduce CO2 emissions were not considered this is not correct If you look at my original article in the ATW Journal December 2010 page 149 and in particular Table 1 it is fully evident that the recycling opportunity was considered both for disposable and reusable cages IVC and therefore some of Rebecca s conclusions should be reconsidered The worldwide Life Cycle Assessment LCA community which assesses the environmental impact associated with all stages of a product s life cradle to the grave when dealing with end of life scenario of products uses where primary data is not available data from public administration or industrial associations to consider the best possible method to treat the component materials used within the product For example different streams for recycling incineration or disposal including respective percentages Consequently both recycling and waste to energy programs were considered in the comparative LCA study of disposable and reusable IVC cages Furthermore according to ISO 14044 standard for LCA all the comparative assertion of products having the same function must be peer reviewed from an Independent international expert review statement is available on demand In contrast many of the sentences reported in Rebecca s poster are in fact only suppositions and are not based on actual data as the authors themselves state in the last sentence see Conclusions I would like to add some further considerations regarding the end of life of disposable cages namely Recycling The cage material PET could be recycled but which organisations would be willing to handle PET cages which are potentially infected A sterilisation process for cages would be mandatory before handling by internal and external operators To avoid any further misconceptions I would suggest that the FDA and EPA be contacted on the subject as these are the best reference sources in the USA on this subject Incineration If the PET cage is incinerated the embedded energy content could be extracted but it is completely false that CO2 emissions are avoided Why Because the fossil carbon content in the plastic cage PET or other plastics during combustion releases CO2 fossil origin into the atmosphere The CO2 was stored as Carbon within the PET material and released during combustion Lavoisier Principle on materials conservation As these comments are somewhat on the technical side it is perhaps wise to also to consider some economic points It is evident that for 1 reusable cage usable for 7 8 years more than 200 disposable cages must be balanced with the terrific amount of energy and material PET needed for manufacturing irradiation transport and disposal of such cages as potentially infected waste Unfortunately Rebecca does not include economic considerations within her study In closing I must stress that when considering Sustainability only the Life Cycle Thinking gives a full understanding of the situation for any product Sincerely Vito D Incognito Email vdincognito take care it 232

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December 2013 Animal Technology and Welfare Instructions to Authors Subjects considered for publication may include original articles technical notes and reviews pertaining to all aspects of animal science and technology management and education The Editorial Board wishes to offer par ticular encouragement to papers leading to improvements in environmental enrichment the general care and welfare of the animals used in particular those species and strains exhibiting harmful genetic defects and papers describing refinements in techniques a reduction in the number of animals that need to be used or alternatives to animal use Papers describing experimental procedures will only be accepted for publication if authors clearly state that the procedures conform to the prevailing principles and Codes of Practice of the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 Papers submitted from outside the U K should state what legislation and or ethical approval the work has been carried out under In addition authors who describe surgical techniques with recovery should include details of post operative care and any analgesic therapy provided All sheets should be typewritten on one side in double spacing and serially numbered Any photographs or graphs should be supplied as originals and conform to the format in 4 below Address for submission Journal Editorial Board Chairman 5 South Parade Summertown Oxford OX2 7JL No responsibility will be accepted for loss or damage to such articles Electronic files of submissions are required together with separate files of photographs and any graphics that appear in the manuscript Electronic submissions should be sent via email via atw iat org uk alternatively manuscript plus two copies may be sent as hard copy to the address below All sheets should be typewritten on one side in double spacing with 4 cm margins and serially numbered Additionally a copy on disk should be provided or sent by email via atw iat org uk The Editorial Board reser ves the right to seek independent advice on any aspect of the content of an article but the final decision on acceptance or rejection remains with the Board Articles for submission should be sent to Journal Editorial Board Chairman 5 South Parade Summertown Oxford OX2 7JL Submission No responsibility will be accepted for loss or damage to such articles Material submitted for publication will be considered provided that it is contributed exclusively to Animal Technology and becomes the property of the Institute of Animal Technology Format Articles may be submitted either electronically or by hard copy as follows Electronic Articles should be submitted in Word format with double spacing to the lines and all pages serially numbered Any photographs or graphs must be submitted as separate files and conform to the format in point 4 below The relevant ar ticle must clearly indicate where photographs and or graphs are to be inserted Address for submission atw iat org uk Hard copy The original manuscript plus two copies should be sent to the address below together with a copy on disk CD or DVD 1 The first sheet of the article should contain the following i the full title of the paper ii the initials and last name of the author s iii the full address of the depar tment s and institution s where the work was carried out iv the address for correspondence if different to above 2 For the remainder of the paper the text should be clear and concise and where appropriate sub divided under the following headings i ii iii iv v vi vii Summary Introduction Methods Results Discussion Acknowledgements References 233

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Instructions to Authors 3 Measurements should be given in metric units see The use of S I Units 1969 British Standards Institution publication and spelling should follow that of the Oxford English Dictionary Abbreviations must be defined in full at their first appearance in the text The 24 hour clock should be used for times Words to appear in italic type should be underlined Designation of inbred strains should be in accordance with the International Index of Laboratory Animals 6th edition compiled edited and published by M W Festing 1993 4 Photographs should have clear and well contrasted tone values and be in colour All illustrations charts e g histograms and graphs and photographs should be submitted separately and bear on the reverse side the author s name a number corresponding to the order in which it appears in the text e g Figure 1 and an arrow pointing to the top Illustrations charts and photographs supplied on disk should be in JPEG TIFF or EPS formats and have a resolution of no less than 300dpi The captions for illustrations charts and photographs should be typed in double spacing in numerical order on a separate sheet of paper 5 References to other literature should be indicated in the text by superior figures12 and should be typed in numerical order in the order in which they appear in the text on a separate sheet of paper References should be set out as follows Journals Surname and initials of author s date title of article Name of journal in full volume number first and last page numbers Content Papers describing procedures involving the use of animals should always include full details of the animals and husbandry conditions used These would be as follows Animals Species Breed or strain Sex Age and weight at start of procedure Genetic status inbred outbred hybrid mutant Source Microbiological status conventional specified pathogen free define which pathogens animals are free from gnotobiotic define which microorganisms are present Quarantine or acclimatisation period Husbandry during procedure Type of housing material size cage type if relevant Number of animals per cage or unit Bedding type quality any pretreatment Type of system conventional barrier ventilated rack isolator Environmental temperature C range Relative Humidity range Lighting natural artificial state hours of light and dark Ventilation number of air changes per hour Period of acclimatisation before start of procedure Feed type composition any pretreatment amount frequency Water type quality any pretreatment amount frequency Scientific procedure e g Saigeman S 1998 Environmental enhancement of cats what why how Animal Technology Vol 49 No 3 145 154 Number of animals and any pretreatment Time of day of procedure s Quantity and frequency of any samples Books Surname and initials of author s date title of book Name of publisher Town of publisher Statistics e g Flecknell P A 1987 Laborator y Animal Anaesthesia Academic Press London Reprints Chapter from a multi author book Surname and initials of chapter author s date title of chapter In title of book surname and initials of book editors Name of publisher Town of publisher first and last page numbers of chapter e g Gregory J A 1985 Principles of Animal Husbandry In Laboratory Animals An Introduction for Experimenters Second Edition Tuffrey A A John Wiley Sons Ltd Chichester 87 105 234 Tests used should be named Free reprints are no longer provided but the ATW Editorial Board are happy to provide PDF files of articles after publication Use of these files is subject to Copyright restrictions

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The Learning Curve provides high quality training and CPD for animal technologists in vivo scien sts and support sta Courses and workshops include Home O ce Modules 1 4 accredited by IAT Levels 2 and 3 NACWO Principles of Training Mentoring and Assessing Project Licence Review for AWERB RAnTech Prepara on PIL Refresher Training PPL Review for NACWOs Introduc ons to Technical Procedures Asep c Techniques Necropsy And Animals Scien c Procedures Act 1986 Amendment Regula ons 2012 for Current NACWOs Facility Sta Current Licensees Coming soon Home O ce Module 5 and Zebra sh CPD Courses and workshops take place at central loca ons or can be delivered at customer premises where local procedures and customisa on of material can be included to the customer s speci ca on The CurVet Imita on Training Aid is a purposely designed training model to provide the skills required for humane and ethical handling and procedural competencies without the need to use a live animal Visit The Learning Curve web site for full details 2014 calendar of availability to make bookings or to learn more about our Workforce Competency Review service www learningcurvedevelopment co uk