Animal Ethics Newsletter

Welcome to the July edition of the Animal Ethics Newsletter.

ANU Veterinary Services

The ANU is pleased to announce the appointment of a new senior veterinarian Dr Suzanne Fowler who will commence in the new role on August 5 2019.

Dr Fowler will join Dr Jelena Vukcevic in providing veterinary services and advice to research and technical staff as well as the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee.

If you require veterinary services or advice please contact Dr Fowler or Dr Jelena Vukcevic directly or for immediate assistance during and emergency or unexpected adverse event please use the on-call number 6125 1130.

We look forward to providing an update on the new services and programs that will be led by the veterinary team in future newsletters.

suzanne.fowler@anu.edu.au
jelena.vukcevic@anu.edu.au

MEC Success for Animal Monitoring Equipment!

Head of Animal Services

The Australian Phenomics Facility (APF) in collaboration with Dr Kate Hannan and a number of other researchers at JCSMR have recently successfully bid for digital cage monitoring equipment. The new system will result in the ability to monitor mice in their 'home cage' environment 24/7. The equipment tracks animal movement through the cages via ElectroMagnetic Field (EMF) technology and will be able to flag cages that have shown reduced movement or significant changes in activity. The suite also comes with data analysis software to assist researchers with interpretation of the movement over a certain period. This equipment will also assist staff with husbandry management of cages with the ability to flag cages that are at risk of flooding, low food and also when cages need changing. The Digital Ventilated Caging (DVC) technology should arrive by the end of 2019 and be operational early to mid-2020 for researcher use. For more information see the caging technology at https://www.tecniplast.it/au/catalog/dvc.html or contact the APF at animal.ops@anu.edu.au

New Animal Ethics Amendment Form

A new animal ethics amendment form has been released, it is available on our website. The form includes a number of new questions which are commonly asked by the AEEC when amendment applications are reviewed. It is hoped that the new form will reduce the number of pre-review questions going out to the researchers from the AEEC, resulting in a process that is more streamlined and efficient.

Fetal Calf Serum Free Database

The FCS-free Database provides an overview of FCS-free media for cell-culture, access to the entire database is cost free.

The database allows users to choose between the different cell types, products, sources (i.e. companies or literature), and specified parameters and compare these in order to choose the best medium for their research.

https://fcs-free.org/

Carcass Preservation: Fridge Please!

ANU Veterinarian

Sometimes, despite careful planning and implementation, an experiment may not go according to plan and an animal may perish as a result. In these cases, it is important to try and ascertain the cause of death to rule out a disease outbreak or to adjust experimental method accordingly.  Carcass preservation becomes vital in these cases as often the cause may not be obvious visually and further microscopic analysis may be required through histopathology.  First instinct is often to put the carcass in the freezer, however this is not the case when it comes to conducting a post mortem! Freezing and thawing affects the appearance of tissue at both a gross and microscopic level.  Freezing causes formation of ice crystals in the tissues, which, at a microscopic level, will cause disruption of normal tissue architecture and will affect a pathologist’s interpretation.  So, if ever you have an unexpected death requiring examination, please make sure to FRIDGE not FREEZE! Then call an ANU Vet on x51130 to conduct a post-mortem.

Why Change that Needle?

ANU Veterinarian

There are many reasons we should be changing needles between individual animals when giving injections. Firstly, once a needle is used, it is no longer considered sterile and every subsequent injection is contaminated by the previous animal, thus increasing your chances of infection or reaction. Secondly, there will be remnants of whatever compound is used in the hub of that needle, which is significant for any substances that cause reactions when seeded in layers other than the target tissue. Thirdly, every time a needle is used, it is blunted and will need to be applied with more force to penetrate tissue, which equates to more pain for the subject. You would be horrified if a doctor or nurse reused a previous patient’s needle on you, and the animals in your care should be no different.

Annual Reviews and Annual Animal Use Numbers: What’s the difference? Why are they important?

An annual review is a report to the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee (AEEC) is a requirement of the Code that must be completed on the one year anniversary of an approved protocol’s start date. The annual review provides the AEEC with details on the progress of the project in accordance with the approval, including the number of animals used to date. The AEEC reviews these at their monthly meetings and formally approves the protocols for continuation.

Annual animal use numbers are required at the end of each calendar year and must capture the total number of animals used under an approved protocol that was valid during that year, regardless of whether the protocol was valid for one day or the whole year. The species, the number of animals used and the Australian state or territory where the animals were used must be reported, animals used overseas must also be reported. ANU must provide the numbers to the state and territory governments in order to maintain the AEEC’s licence to approve ANU research to be conducted in the particular jurisdiction.