Refinements in telemetry procedures: A new resource

P. Hawkins

Research Animals Department, RSPCA, Joint Working Group on Re.nement (JWGR), Southwater, UK

Telemetry is widely viewed as bene.ting science and animal welfare because it can reduce stress caused to animals (e.g. by restraint), enable reductions in animal numbers, and provide indicators of animal wellbeing to help implement humane endpoints. The primary advantage of the technique is that interference with ‘normal’ behavior and physiology can be significantly decreased, thus reducing distress, affording new insights into physiology and enabling more valid and reproducible data to be obtained.

However, telemetry has an impact on individual animals, which needs to be minimized before the technique can truly be regarded as a refinement. Animals can be affected by surgical implantation or attachment procedures; the physical impact (mass and volume) of the device; or distress caused by technical constraints on providing group housing and environmental enrichment.

To meet the demand for current information on refinements in telemetry, the JWGR convened a group of experts from industry, academia and welfare organizations to produce a resource for researchers who use the technique. The group has produced two reports that consolidate best practice for:

  1. Reducing the impact of telemetry procedures, including surgery,
  2. Improving the husbandry of rats, mice, dogs and non-human primates used in telemetry studies.
  3. The reports have recently been published and the talk will summarize some of their key conclusions and recommendations.

P. Hawkins presents on behalf of the British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation, Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

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