Berset Corina Mihaela, Lanker Urban, Zeiter Stephan
AO Research Institute Davos, Clavadelerstrasse 8, CH-7270 Davos, Switzerland.
Animal Welfare and 3R Department, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Aug 30;10(9):1528. doi: 10.3390/ani10091528.
Currently, there is a lack of detailed information about sheep used for biomedical research. Therefore, a European survey was conducted among sheep users gathering information on the current situation, with emphasis on animal selection criteria and issues encountered in practice. The ultimate goal was to identify needs for improvement, which will subsequently lead to a refinement and reduction of the total number of animals used for experimental studies. From the 84 respondents, 77.4% were veterinarians, 71.4% were employed at academic institutions and 63.1% had worked with sheep as research animals for more than 5 years. The majority of the respondents were using females (79.8%) with no clear age preference, mainly for surgical procedures and testing medical devices. The main criteria for choosing a sheep supplier were the animals' health status, their availability, the trust and experience in the sheep provider and the animals' uniformity. Approximately 60% of the respondents had encountered problems in their sheep not related to the experimental protocol and almost half of them did not have a health monitoring program for their animals. In conclusion, there is definitely a need for refinement in selecting sheep used in biomedical research, with their health status as possible starting point.
目前，缺乏用于生物医学研究的绵羊的详细信息。因此，在绵羊使用者中开展了一项欧洲范围内的调查，收集有关当前状况的信息，重点是动物选择标准和实践中遇到的问题。最终目标是确定改进需求，这随后将导致用于实验研究的动物总数得到优化和减少。在84名受访者中，77.4%是兽医，71.4%受雇于学术机构，63.1%从事绵羊研究动物工作超过5年。大多数受访者使用雌性绵羊（79.8%），对年龄没有明确偏好，主要用于外科手术和医疗器械测试。选择绵羊供应商的主要标准是动物的健康状况、可获得性、对绵羊供应商的信任和经验以及动物的一致性。约60%的受访者在其绵羊身上遇到了与实验方案无关的问题，其中近一半没有针对其动物的健康监测计划。总之，在选择用于生物医学研究的绵羊时，绝对需要进行优化，可能以其健康状况作为起点。
