Return to flip book view

Institute of Animal Technology Bulletin G G G AAALAC Fellowship Report AAALAC Call for Nominations AS ET G G G Branch News Situations Vacant Diary Dates Vol 51 No 5 May 2015

Bulletin Vol 51 No 5 May 2015 EDITOR Sarah Lane bulletineditor iat org uk ASSISTANT EDITOR Elaine Kirkum bulletinassistant iat org uk ADVERTISEMENT MANAGERS PRC Associates Ltd mail prcassoc co uk Published monthly by the Institute of Animal Technology Registered Office 5 South Parade Summertown Oxford OX2 7JL ISSN 0263 2861 For enquiries other than Bulletin related contact IAT ADMINISTRATOR admin iat org uk or 0800 085 4380 Final copy date for July Bulletin 1st June The opinions expressed in the Bulletin do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or the Institute CONTENTS AAALAC International Fellowship Report Suppliers Register 7 35 i xliv AAALAC International Fellowship Last Call for 2015 Nominations 22 IAT Congress Branch Raffle 25 Three Minute Interviews 27 31 AS ET 32 33 How do you really feel about Animal Welfare survey 34 Branch News 35 Situations Vacant Diary Dates 37 38 39

Bulletin May 2015 7 My AAALAC Fellowship Experience by Lynda Westall Last year 2014 I had the great honour of being the IAT recipient of the AAALAC Fellowship Award For those of you new to the AAALAC acronym this stands for Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care This is an award that recognises two people each year who have made or have the potential to make significant contributions to the field of laboratory animal care and use The two recipients come from the IAT and AALAS and 2014 was the 10th year this award had been presented For a few years I had contemplated putting myself forward for this award but felt there were other more worthy people in the industry who deserved it more than I did but friends encouraged me and put my nomination forward I guess there are a lot of people out there just as reluctant as I was to apply but I really must encourage you all to do so It is a truly amazing and rewarding experience that you will have and I hope to be able to give a brief outline of what the IAT Award recipient can expect The IAT registered Award recipient is invited to a 2 week all expenses paid trip to the US The first week is spent predominantly visiting the National Institutes of Health NIH located in Bethesda MD just outside Washington DC There is also a visit to the AAALAC offices to meet all the staff there and find out more about AAALAC The second week is spent attending the National AALAS meeting wherever it happens to be held In 2014 it was held in San Antonia It is at the AALAS meeting at the AAALAC AALAS ICLAS International Luncheon on the Wednesday that the actual award is presented to both recipients This is a beautiful engraved glass globe that has pride of place in my living room my office is too crowded and busy for me to risk keeping it there There have already been articles printed about the AALAS meeting in San Antonio so I want to mainly cover the experiences I had the week prior to this when I stayed in Bethesda I arrived at my hotel on an early Saturday evening after queuing for almost 2 hours to get through passport control I had the Sunday to myself so decided to brave the US metro and travel into Washington for some sightseeing I m not sure how many miles I covered that day but I took in most of the monuments iconic buildings and museums along The Mall including of course the White House With sore feet I made my way back to my hotel to prepare for the busy week ahead

8 May 2015 Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool Lincoln Memorial Bulletin

Bulletin May 2015 9 Monday was Columbus Day a Federal holiday in the US so the NIH was closed However arrangements had been made for me to spend the day at Maryland University and so began 5 days of meeting many interesting friendly and enthusiastic people both technicians and researchers and being exposed to some exciting yet very different research to what I am familiar with in the UK Rob Weichbrod one of my main hosts from the National Eye Institute who I met on this first day gave up part of his day s holiday to meet and drive me to the University where I was looked after for the day by Doug Powell the Director and Vet of the Central Animal Research Facility there Building 49 that holds an animal facility for National Eye Institute He explained they had many species on campus from alligators to zebrafish but did not keep non human primates NHP cats or dogs Much of the day was spent visiting several of these species and finding out what research they were used for But first I was introduced to Professor Pat O Shea the Vice President and Chief Research Officer of the University a position he had been appointed to 3 years earlier He explained the University had opened 5 October 1859 when it was known as the Maryland Agricultural College It only admitted male students at that time but women were allowed from 1914 There are now 12 animal facilities on campus and another 6 off site The university caters for 37000 students and most courses take 4 years to complete As the crow flies the university is only 12 km from the White House and rumour has it that

Bulletin May 2015 11 house numbers in MD reflect the approximate distance they are from this building and hence the reason they are such large house numbers Alligators I met with Larry Woods the Associate Professor of Aquaculture who has worked with bass for 40 years He showed me various tanks where he is working mainly with striped bass and a hybrid of white and striped bass to look at how production of this fish can be improved for the fish industry by managing stocks in a similar way that we may manage a mouse colony This has involved DNA analysis of the sperm to study motility among other things ensuring only the best males are used for mating A very pleasant lunch was spent with Bob Dooling the chair of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee IACUC at the university more about IACUC later before going to see some ferrets that are used for brain development research particularly the auditory and physiology pathways It was great to hold and make a fuss of a ferret I ve not done so for many years and see how healthy and happy these animals are Then it was off to see more fish cichlids are being used by a geneticist to study the genetics and divergence of this fish as there are more species of cichlids than any other creature in the world Some of the topics being studied included sex determination colour and body shape visual and other senses

12 May 2015 Bulletin From here I was taken to the building where auditory research is carried out Barn owls are one of the species used here They have a small plug placed in one of their ears to study how they pick up sound with the remaining free ear 8 owls were kept inside but a further 17 were kept in outside enclosures which I saw later in the day Another species used for auditory investigations are alligators These learn to move to noise stimuli for food The alligators shared a room with red eyed slider terrapins which were used for anatomy and physiology research Barn owl in outside enclosure This was more or less the end of my day at Maryland University My head was buzzing with facts and figures when I went back to my hotel to prepare myself for another busy day Day 1 at NIH Tuesday The NIH Bethesda campus covers an area of some 316 acres and houses 27 institutes 22 of which use animals across 72 different buildings Approximately 17 000 people work on the campus I was taken to meet Terri Clark Director and Chief Veterinary Officer Stephen Denny Deputy Director and Jackie Newell Hunt Associate Director for Training Education and Program Liaison all from the Office of Animal Care

Bulletin May 2015 13 and Use They explained how US regulations and standards on animal care and use are set up and the main role in this is IACUC Every institution that uses animals for federally funded laboratory research must have an IACUC Each local IACUC will review research protocols and conduct evaluations of the institute s animal care and use The IACUC is also responsible for conducting two unannounced visits each year to all areas where animals are held or have procedures carried out on them These responsibilities are similar to those carried out by our Home Office and Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Bodies AWERBs here in the UK I then met with some of the key people from the National Eye Institute and National Institute of Mental Health and gave them a short presentation on my background and current role David Mallon the Facility Manager of the building housing the animals for these two main institutes plus a further 4 showed me round the facility and we spent some quality time exchanging views and ideas on building flows management cage change frequency and many other everyday issues involved in running a facility It was interesting to hear we shared many similar problems even though we were 1000 s of mile apart There were many diverse species kept in this building including NHP zebrafish rabbits and pigs as well as the usual small laboratory animals However I need to flag up the ground squirrels which are placed in refrigerators to hibernate and are used for the study of adipose tissue retinol research and with the use of telemetry devices the study of what happens to the body during hibernation Such cute creatures This building also housed the first developed transgenic marmoset Day 2 at NIH Wednesday This was promising to be another busy day looking at the itinerary that had been arranged for me My buddy for the day was Lisa Seacrest from Priority 1 who whisked me from one location to another with a lot of enthusiasm Priority 1 is a Contract Agency one of three main agencies who supply staff to animal facilities across the US In the States the majority of animal facilities are run and staffed by agency technicians usually on a 5 year contract This is quite different to what occurs here in the UK although there are a few facilities that do now run that way Priority 1 was also one of my AAALAC trip sponsors As the Training Program Co ordinator Lisa has quite a busy schedule visiting institutes managed by Priority 1 across the country On arriving back at NIH I met Dr Bruce Cummings who is working with Rhesus monkeys to try and get a better understanding of critical pathways in the brain to understand what it is that gives us awareness of visual tasks so the brain electrical pathways can tell us what it is the monkey is seeing i e action potential of the various currents in the brain by studying the neurons

Bulletin May 2015 15 It may take up to several months or longer to fully train a monkey but some of the monkeys I saw had been used for up to 13 years so good training is worth the investment I saw one monkey undergoing a visual trial All monkeys appeared to be very healthy happy and exhibiting normal inquisitive behaviour The use of stimulators to control the involuntary actions of Parkinson s patients arose from this laboratory I was told that deep brain stimulation will be used much more over the next 5 years The big clinical advantage to this when we can read a code or pathway in the brain it will be possible to put an array into the brain to control prosthetic limbs just by thinking We then went on to the AAALAC offices for lunch where I got the chance to thank everyone but particularly Chris Newcomer Executive Director and Amelia Dodge for arranging my trip to the US and was able to give them my short presentation about my background and journey to the position I hold today There is a wealth of information about AAALAC on their website www AAALAC org but briefly it was set up in 1965 and is therefore celebrating its 50 years in 2015 There are 70 trustees and 58 members who carry out accreditation programs with 300 adhoc consultants around the world There are now 900 accredited units in 40 countries with 42 of these being commercial organisations Each site is revisited every 3 years From here we drove onto Baltimore to visit the Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology IMET and the National Aquarium IMET is an Aquaculture Research Center and we were shown around this impressive facility by Russell Hill the Director Part of the research carried out here is fish endocrinology and physiology looking for drugs from the deep with corals sponges and nudibranchs all having contributed to anti cancer drugs Other research includes ways to improve on production of fish for the consumer market This is conducted in massive 6 foot or 12 foot diameter tanks many of which were holding European sea bass IMET can shave 5 months off the time to market by rearing the fish in these tanks They are fed a diet rich in fish meal and fish oil but investigations are looking at how part can be replaced with plant protein to produce similar growth rates The fish grow from 50g to a market size of 0 5kg in 8 9 months Blue fin tuna is another fish IMET is carrying out similar research with The famous Chesapeake Blue Crab also has IMET to thank for its increase of stocks in the area following a decline due to over harvesting The crabs are reared in tanks up to approximately 2

16 May 2015 Bulletin A few of the tanks at IMET months of age then released back into the Bay Finally some nurse sharks were being held there for antibody research Apparently sharks have very few antibodies that protect them from everything while we have loads Understanding how the shark s antibodies work will help us develop better drugs and treatments for ourselves Our last visit of the day was almost next door to the National Aquarium where Brent Whitaker Vice President of Biological Programs there took Lisa and myself behind the scenes This is an amazing aquarium with some very large exhibits There was a selection of sharks to watch a lot of which were local to the Baltimore coast line The obligatory coral reef tropical sea exhibit was spectacular as were almost all the tanks we saw but they looked so different when viewed from the maintenance side behind the scenes Brent explained how some of the exhibits are trained to assist staff if any procedures are required on them For example the very large electric eel is trained to go into a net and be taken out of the water without discharging very handy There is

Bulletin May 2015 17 a team of about 80 staff including laboratory and veterinary staff who look after all the fish and other animals at the Aquarium We were shown their food prep quarantine necropsy and water treatment areas as well as the warren of passage ways to enable the staff to reach all their exhibits quickly without having to fight through the many visitors Treatment pool for the larger exhibits at the National Aquarium Baltimore Our visit finished with a trip to the reptile and amphibian area where we saw a collection of many different tree frogs Apparently this aquarium was the first to keep the Blue Poison Dart frogs in captivity and establish that the poison was linked with the ants the frogs had eaten If they are given something else to feed on they are no longer poisonous This very long and busy day was completed with a well earned meal fish of course on Baltimore s quayside Day 3 at NIH Thursday Today I visited a full rodent facility for the first time I was interested to see what the design of this would be like compared to facilities in the UK It was surprisingly similar and even more so when I saw they used either Allentown or Tecniplast IVCs they even had a Kronos for their bottle processing which I am

Bulletin May 2015 19 very familiar with The facility had capacity for 30 000 cages but only 12 000 were occupied at the time of my visit mostly by mice The welfare of these animals was overseen by a team of 7 vets who appeared to have a similar role to our NACWOs In fact the people I spoke to were very surprised at the low numbers of vets we have at most of our facilities in the UK and could not understand how NACWOs could make decisions about the fate of an animal My next stop was to a dedicated mouse imaging facility where MRI CT ultra sound and X rays are all undertaken for the various institutes Hazard tape on the floor indicated the safe areas from the various equipment for visitors and staff to stand to observe or operate them Hand magnets were positioned throughout the facility to ensure people had removed all magnetic items I was able to watch ultra sound being carried out on a mouse heart and an MRI scan on another mouse heart After a quick lunch I was taken to the NIH facility at Poolsville which is utilised mainly for NHP The site is 356 acres of NIH land Well water is used on site 5 wells which is treated prior to use via their own water treatment station All waste is compressed and then used as manure on pastures All monkeys were observed with a variety of environmental enrichment EE and appeared to be well cared for and all in good health some a bit too nourished so ways to get the monkeys to work for their food to burn off more calories and be more active are being investigated Some animals are provided EE by drilling holes in branches and placing a gum in these which the monkeys have to work to remove this mimics behaviour in the wild Other enrichment I saw was the provision of DVDs in holding rooms Films such as Happy Feet and other similar children s films are rotated around the various rooms for the animals Capuchin monkeys are used to study behaviour and learning development in their young They are kept in groups and are a bit smaller than rhesus monkeys but just as smart Many of the monkeys at Poolsville were on contraceptives to prevent over breeding Rhesus monkeys were very numerous and the offspring are used for research into understanding behaviour with and without a role model and how this affects them later in life This will help in understanding similar situations in humans Patas monkeys are used by the National Cancer Institute for research into HIV drugs and their effect on the foetus in the womb It is easy to tell if a female is pregnant or lactating because their black nose goes white I observed this difference while I watched some of the breeding colonies They are more of a savannah monkey so have long legs for racing about the ground

20 May 2015 The day was rounded off with my first experience of Joe s Crab Shack with many of the people I had met during the week Day 4 at NIH Friday My last morning at NIH involved a visit to a large dedicated zebrafish facility onsite This installation held 95 000 litres of water and the potential to hold 1 5 million fish However the system was running at 60 capacity and was maintained by up to 20 staff Needless to say it was an impressive unit with full redundancy of all pumps and other key equipment in place Part of the zebrafish facility Bulletin

Bulletin May 2015 21 This completed my visit to the NIH My week had been extremely busy a lot had been packed in but it had been a very rewarding experience to have seen facets of research that I am not exposed to in the UK Everyone I met showed dedication and enthusiasm to their jobs and it had been a privilege to witness this Animal technology in the US is not really any different to that in the UK and I made some great friends among the animal technician staff that I met My final day in Bethesda was completed with a quick return trip to Washington to visit the Ground Zero Memorial at the Pentagon I was really impressed with this peaceful reflective enclave so close to all the noise and bustling just a few yards away It is very fitting memorial to all the people who lost their lives there in 9 11 Ground Zero Memorial Pentagon

Bulletin May 2015 23 I went on to enjoy a further week in San Antonio at the National AALAS meeting where I also had the great opportunity to visit the primate facility at Bastrop and become one of the latest members of the Society of Bridge Spitters SOBs all of which has been previously reported in the Bulletin Finally I would like to highlight once more that if like me you are holding back on nominating yourself for the AAALAC Fellowship Award do not do so any longer Put your nomination forward and if you are lucky enough to be a recipient of this award you will have a truly amazing experience visiting NIH and seeing some of the ground breaking research being carried out It is a fabulous recognition of your contribution to animal care and welfare

Bulletin May 2015 25 IAT Congress 2015 Branch Raffle The Branch Raffle at Congress 2015 was held in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind The raffle raised the marvellous total of 2 300 The draw was made on Thursday afternoon and several prizes remain unclaimed If you have the winning ticket please contact the IAT Administrator to arrange delivery of your prize iat101 btconnect com The unclaimed prizes are His and Hers Handbag briefcase Ticket number 314 Grey ticket serial code AB946699 Next Gift Voucher Ticket number 541 Grey ticket serial code AB946699 Virgin Experience Day Ticket number 929 Grey ticket serial number AB946699 Famous Grouse Ticket number 511 Green ticket serial number AB963720 Cava Ticket number 489 Grey ticket serial number AB946699 Blue Nun Sparkling wine Ticket number 216 Green ticket serial number AB963720

Bulletin May 2015 27 Dorothy Woodnott and Keith Millican are members of the first generation of professional career animal technicians Dorothy or Paddy to her friends was a founder member of the Association of Animal Technicians which became the IAT elected to Council in 1950 when working for the MRC Labs in Hampstead London before going on to work at the National Institute of Medical Research NIMR Paddy co edited The Manual of Animal Technology which during the 60s and 70s was the standard text book Amongst Paddy s many IAT achievements was as an examiner at all levels and Chair of IAT Council for nine years during 1971 1980 Keith worked for many years at NIMR before moving to the University of Oxford Keith was extremely active within the IAT promoting qualifications for animal technicians and examining at all levels Keith served as Hon Secretary from 19761980 and then as Chair of Council for fourteen years from 1980 1994 Keith was extremely active in the consultation and implementation of the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 Paddy and Keith are both Fellows of the IAT and in view of their outstanding IAT service were both elected to Life Membership Keith now retired in New Zealand was visited by Paddy who lives in Canada They are life time friends as well as former colleagues and I hope you enjoy reading their interviews Bulletin Editor Three Minute Interview Name Dorothy P Woodnott Job title Grade A Washer up Describe yourself in 3 words Fastidious eccentric inquisitive What is your earliest memory Sitting on my grandfather s knee and demanding to be read stories preferably the Greek myths because they were stories about real people and not tales of silly princesses and witches

28 May 2015 Bulletin When you were at school what or who did you want to be and why A medical practitioner A desire I neither achieved nor lost What was the first music album you bought In the thirties we bought discs not albums Mine purchased with payment for washing up the tea things for a week without breakage was a 10 inch 76 RPM record of Henry Hall s Teddy Bears Picnic If you could have dinner with one person who would that be and why Sir Thomas Cromwell probably the finest administrator England has ever had But I bet it wasn t much fun being administered by him I d love to know what made him tick What is the best advice you have been given Don t After all it was Mr Punch s advice to those about to be married Could one better the advice What is your next goal in life To manage to steer clear of one of those splendidly advertised Retirement Homes and stick around at home being a nuisance If you could visit anywhere in the world where would you choose and why I would re visit Turkey and recapture the delight of that amazing architecture and decoration I like the food too What is your favourite quote or saying If you can keep your head when all about are losing their s Kipling What is the most important thing your job has taught you That you are never too old to learn a new trick Cup of tea or stiff drink Neither I much prefer a cup of coffee or a glass of cool white wine Favourite colour Blue Favourite place The Yorkshire Dales all hills valleys and rivers with the sun shining perpetually But I fear there is no more climbing Gordale Scar for me or walking out to the Sinks

Bulletin May 2015 29 Last book you read A biography of Sir John A MacDonald who was Prime Minister of Canada in the 1880 s and was the Father of the Canadian Federation He did a great job because the task was like herding cats Name something that annoys you Untidiness and slovenliness especially in association with the English language Printable most embarrassing moment You haven t heard Well I never Let s keep it that way Hobbies or interests Travelling and I m still at it My last invasion was to a country of great natural beauty and an abundance of delightful trees New Zealand

30 May 2015 Bulletin Three Minute Interview Name Keith Millican Job title Grass Mowing more than two acres every five days or so in Summer seven days in Winter Describe yourself in 3 words Talks too much What is your earliest memory Playing in our sandpit in Bredbury Cheshire When you were at school what or who did you want to be and why Agriculture for the animals machinery freedom and fresh air What was the first music album you bought When 18 19 I bought a Pye Black Box HiFi expensive so I could only afford one 7 Saint Sa ns Carnival of the Animals was bought to show off the High Fidelity If you could have dinner with one person who would that be and why Sir Peter Medawar a delightful interesting man What is the best advice you have been given Move to the catchment area of a good school we have one Senior Electrical Engineer and a Pharmacist because of it What is your next goal in life On retirement my goal was to live long enough to enjoy all my pension contributions Long gone so let s use twice the amount If you could visit anywhere in the world where would you choose and why Having visited Iguaz falls from both Brazil and Argentina temples and jungle areas of Thailand Tiananmen Square the night before the troops attacked the Students Egypt s tombs and the Nile Yellowstone and the Rockies as well as

Bulletin May 2015 31 the usual trips and recently three trips to the East coast of Australia I am perfectly happy to stay in New Zealand and my body says Good Stay Home What is your favourite quote or saying It is quality not quantity that counts Fables of Aesop A vixen sneered at a lioness because she never bore more than one cub Only one she replied but a lion What is the most important thing your job has taught you Don t cut wet grass on steep slopes The mower slips and cleaning the machine afterwards is hard work Cup of tea or stiff drink Being in NZ and living amongst wineries and vineyards there is plenty of good cheap Sauvignon Blanc and our supermarket stocks heavy Australian reds but tea before 17 00hrs Favourite colour Blue Favourite place Our lifestyle property with good neighbours far enough away to think of using the car to visit them Last book you read Sue Grafton s H is for Homicide With Paddy Woodnott staying with Dianne and I for three weeks I need relaxation having been chewing over the IAT three old Fellows with 249 years of life between them have a lot to say Name something that annoys you Tailgaters Yellow Line over takers along with distracted drivers be they using phones eating or putting on lipstick with a hand held mirror i e two hands knees to steer In other words be very watchful in New Zealand Printable most embarrassing moment Eric Morgan and his wife visited us for a day in March Almost his first words were you failed me in my H S Exams Hobbies or interests In New Zealand every man should have a Ute and a big shed I have a 17year old Nissan Navara and a shed to envy six bays with a room with WC sink and washing machine It s enough for any project servicing and leaving tools etc around My ambition is to tidy it up the bigger the shed the bigger the mess

32 May 2015 Bulletin AS ET 5th Anniversary Year Fund Raising and Official Sponsors We set ourselves the target of raising 50 000 in our 5th Anniversary Year So far we have raised 14 000 A good sum but we have a long way to go If you would like to help us achieve our goal please become an official supporter of AS ET Fill in a standing order form to donate a minimum of 24 00 a year and you will be entered into a prize draw to win two tickets and a room in the hotel for one night for the AS ET Fund Raising Ball in September Standing order forms can be downloaded from our website www as et org uk AS ET 5th Anniversary Fundraising Ball We still have tickets for our ball being held at the Hilton London Metropole Hotel on 5th September There will be a drinks reception three course meal guest speaker charity auction and dancing until 1am Don t be left out order your ticket from elaine lbs biotech com We will be publishing the items to be auctioned in the Bulletin over the next few months If you want to get an early bid in you can do so by emailing your bid to elaine lbs biotech com ensuring that you make clear which lot you are bidding for Lot 1 A wood carving by Roger Francis The one shown here is an example of the artist s work Lots 2 and 3 Paintings by Sir Richard Gardner The one shown here is an example of the artist s work

Bulletin May 2015 33 AS ET is a charity to advance education and promote excellence in the care and welfare of animals used in science Sponsors of AS ET are listed below and to find out more please visit the website www as et org uk

34 May 2015 Bulletin How do you really feel about Animal Welfare Having worked in the life science sector for over 35 years I have always been intrigued by society s varying attitude to animal welfare and so I need your help The link below is to an anonymous survey that will take no more than 5 minutes to complete The aim of the survey is to gauge how people working with research animals feel about other uses of animals in society The outcome of the research will be shared with you all and I hope that you will be able to share the survey link with your research colleagues and via your membership e newsletters bulletins membership web sites and other communications the more results we get the better https www surveymonkey com s animalwelfareissues Why am I doing this For a long time people working with research animals have been portrayed by those whom oppose the use of animal in research as uncaring I am genuinely interested to see how the research community feels about animal welfare issues and whether the results indicate more or less concern about particular welfare issues To enable as full a response as possible the survey link will remain open until Tuesday 30th June Please restrict the circulation of this survey to people working with animals in a research environment on a regular basis Thanks in advance for your responses Norman Norman Mortell BA Hons MIAT RAnTech Director of Operations Agenda Resource Management

Bulletin May 2015 35 Surrey Hampshire and Sussex Branch AGM T he Surrey Hampshire and Sussex Branch held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 11th February 2015 at APAH in Surrey Prior to the AGM there was a talk by Stuart Stevenson from Eli Lilly on the subject of Animal room reverse light cycles for Rats Stuart described a rat project that studied the animals sleeping patterns hormone levels and activity following reversal of their normal light cycles The results showed that rats need several days up to ten to adjust to the changes This is an important consideration when planning such studies The AGM followed the talk with our Secretary Lesley Hughes reporting on the year s activities The year got off to a dubious start with the AGM having to be postponed at the last minute due to seriously bad weather but the March meeting was well attended and the presentation delivered by James Herd of the Surrey Wildlife Trust was enjoyed by all The Branch arranged two further events one of which a talk by two guest speakers from Harlan also had to be cancelled due to lack of response from members The second an afternoon at Ascot racecourse beer festival sponsored by Sychem was well attended and enjoyable if very chilly with an afternoon of sampling good ales and some good humoured gambling Stuart Stevenson the Branch Treasure reported that the Branch has a health balance with just over 2500 in its accounts The Branch Committee met on 5 occasions during 2014 The following members were re elected to the committee Chairman Stuart Mackrell Secretary Lesley Hughes Treasurer Stuart Stevenson Committee Fran Whitmore Mandy Thorpe Maureen Peters Stuart Smith Ian Milne Dan Harding Marc Lind Euan Peters and Steve Meacham Thanks to all who supported the Branch in 2014 Stuart Mackrell Branch Reporter

36 May 2015 Bulletin

Bulletin May 2015 DIARY Dates 20 May IAT Branch Reps Meeting London Details from www iat org uk 3 5 June AFSTAL Annual Scientific Meeting Lille France Details from www colloque afstal com 2015 4 June London Branch Catch Up The Marlborough Arms London Details from j holby ucl ac uk 9 12 June Scand LAS Annual Scientific Meeting Turku Finland Details from www scandlas org 16 June Genetics Breeding and Welfare of Laboratory Mice Cambridge Details from www nc3rs org uk 19 June LASA Care and Welfare Section LSHTM Creature Comforts Contributions to care monitoring and animal welfare in Laboratory Animal Science London Details from info lasa co uk 26 June West of Scotland Edinburgh Branch Edinburgh Zoo Trip Details from linda horan strath ac uk See page 36 5 September Charity Ball London Details from elaine lbs biotech com 23 September LASA 3Rs Meeting Birth to Study 3Rs Animal Development and Transport South of England Details from info lasa co uk 25 27 November LASA Winter Meeting South of England Details from info lasa co uk Cover photo Tropical Spiny Agama Agama armata Malcolm Gamble 39