Monitoring the health of laboratory animals helps to ensure that animal research experiments yield reliable and reproducible results. Organizations such as the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) accredit and evaluate health monitoring programs and laboratories involved with health monitoring. Nicklas and colleagues (who are members of the FELASA working group Accreditation Board for Health Monitoring) describe the guidelines of the FELASA health monitoring accreditation process. By making health monitoring reports more thorough and reliable, this accreditation program aims to increase the standardization of health monitoring of laboratory animals. See
page 43
To help ensure that researchers follow the principles of the 3Rs and use and care for research animals in an ethical manner, research institutions, government bodies and other regulatory authorities have developed ethical review processes. The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC International) and other organizations have developed voluntary programs to assess these institutional ethical reviews. Guillen discusses how AAALAC International evaluates the ethical review processes of European institutions by using performance standards. See
page 49
