Welfare assessment and phenotype characterisation of transgenic mice.

Induced mutations can cause new and unpredictable phenotypes and may impact the health and welfare of animals. Impairments may arise within normal husbandry and breeding regimes i.e. before starting to do experiments. In order to apply the 3R principles and to use transgenic animals under high scientific and welfare standards, two structured forms for individual health monitoring and strain characterisation have been developed. They are available at: www.vu-wien.ac.at/labortierkunde or www.altex.ch.