Fish resilience as an ethical issue.

Fish resilience can be understood as the capacity of fish to successfully respond to a challenge so that they are able to function and flourish in much the same way as they did prior to the occurrence of the challenge. Resilience is a function not only of individual fish, but also of a whole fish population. Enhancing the resilience of fish requires both adapting the robustness of the animals and adapting the (production) environment to the specific needs of the fish.

Attitudes of clients of Dutch pest controllers towards integrated pest management (IPM) and preventive measures in relation to rodent nuisance.

Background: Rodent management with lethal methods (e.g., rodenticides) comes with downsides for rodent welfare, the environment and non-target species.

The development of animal welfare science in China: An explorative analysis.

This paper presents results of a search and analysis of research projects on animal welfare registered in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database in the period 1996-2019, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of developments in animal welfare science in China. The title-abstract search of publications in this database resulted in over 260 articles that could be linked to 200 research projects with an animal welfare component. These projects were analysed for: (a) involved academic disciplines; (b) studied animal species; (c) contexts of animal use; (d) concepts of animal welfare; and (e) attention to ethical dimensions of animal welfare.

Simulation of dual-purpose chicken breeding programs implementing gene editing.

Background: In spite of being controversial and raising ethical concerns, the application of gene editing is more likely to be accepted when it contributes to improving animal welfare. One of the animal welfare and ethical issues in chicken breeding is chick culling, the killing of the male layer chicks after hatching due to the poor fattening performance. Although establishing dual-purpose chicken lines could solve this problem, unfavorable genetic correlations between egg and meat production traits hindered their competitiveness.

Methodical advances in reproducibility research: A proof of concept qualitative comparative analysis of reproducing animal data in humans.

Background: While the term reproducibility crisis mainly reflects reproducibility of experiments between laboratories, reproducibility between species also remains problematic. We previously summarised the published reproducibility between animal and human studies; i.e.

Experiences and recommendations of veterinarians for the Dutch disciplinary system-a survey-based study.

Introduction: In the Netherlands, the veterinary disciplinary system is governmentally executed and was originally designed to provide an educational effect on veterinarians as part of maintaining quality standards.

Methods: Over 900 veterinarians were questioned (20% of the total number of veterinarians working in veterinary medicine in the Netherlands). It was ascertained whether or not they were aware of the disciplinary system, if it affected their way of working and what impact it had on their way of working after having faced a disciplinary case.

As if you were hiring a new employee: on pig veterinarians' perceptions of professional roles and relationships in the context of smart sensing technologies in pig husbandry in the Netherlands and Germany.

Unlabelled: Veterinarians are increasingly confronted with new technologies, such as Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), which allows for automated animal monitoring on commercial farms. At the same time, we lack information on how veterinarians, as stakeholders who may play a mediating role in the public debate on livestock farming, perceive the use and the impact of such technologies. This study explores the meaning veterinarians attribute to the application of PLF in the context of public concerns related to pig production.

Challenging Future Generations: A Qualitative Study of Students' Attitudes toward the Transition to Animal-Free Innovations in Education and Research.

In 2016, the Dutch government declared its commitment to phasing out animal experiments by 2025. Although a high number of animal experiments are still performed and the 2025 target will not be met, the commitment remains. Efforts are being made to identify levers that might foster the transition to animal-free science.

15 years of facts and figures on veterinary disciplinary measures in the Netherlands.

In most countries, a veterinary disciplinary system is in force to ensure the quality of the veterinary profession and to offer an objective platform for complaints. We present an analysis of 15 years of veterinary disciplinary verdicts (2001-2016) to compare facts and figures and identify which factors are of major influence on the outcome of the verdicts. Rulings were collected from both paper files and the digital database of the veterinary disciplinary council (VDC), categorized, and used to create a database that enabled a statistical analysis.

Imagined futures for livestock gene editing: Public engagement in the Netherlands.

Gene editing is an emerging technology with diverse applications in the making, including in livestock. While the technology is commonly represented as offering unbounded possibilities and societal benefit, it remains unclear how to characterise public views and the process through which responses are developed. Rather than simply being about individual attitudes, beliefs or preferences, we explicate an interpretative approach that seeks to understand how people make sense of the technology in the form of shared cultural idioms and stories.

Caught on Camera: On the Need of Responsible Use of Video Observation for Animal Behavior and Welfare Research.

Video analysis is a popular and frequently used tool in animal behavior and welfare research. In addition to the actual object of research, video recordings often provide unforeseen information about the progress of the study, the animals or the people involved. Conflicts can arise when this information is weighed against the original intention of the recordings and broader social expectations.

Multiphoton intravital microscopy of rodents.

Tissues are heterogeneous with respect to cellular and non-cellular components and in the dynamic interactions between these elements. To study the behaviour and fate of individual cells in these complex tissues, intravital microscopy (IVM) techniques such as multiphoton microscopy have been developed to visualize intact and live tissues at cellular and subcellular resolution. IVM experiments have revealed unique insights into the dynamic interplay between different cell types and their local environment, and how this drives morphogenesis and homeostasis of tissues, inflammation and immune responses, and the development of various diseases.

Animal models for cystic fibrosis: a systematic search and mapping review of the literature. Part 2: nongenetic models.

Various animal models are available to study cystic fibrosis (CF). These models may help to enhance our understanding of the pathology and contribute to the development of new treatments. We systematically searched all publications on CF animal models.

Risk-Based Decision Making: A Systematic Scoping Review of Animal Models and a Pilot Study on the Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Rats.

Animals, including humans, frequently make decisions involving risk or uncertainty. Different strategies in these decisions can be advantageous depending the circumstances. Short sleep duration seems to be associated with more risky decisions in humans.

Smart Technologies Lead to Smart Answers? On the Claim of Smart Sensing Technologies to Tackle Animal Related Societal Concerns in Europe Over Current Pig Husbandry Systems.

Current pig production systems in Europe are subject to public criticism. At the same time, Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies, which allow for automated animal monitoring are entering commercial pig farms. With their claim of improving animal health and welfare, these innovations may respond to public concerns.

Reviewing the animal literature: how to describe and choose between different types of literature reviews.

Before starting any (animal) research project, review of the existing literature is good practice. From both the scientific and the ethical perspective, high-quality literature reviews are essential. Literature reviews have many potential advantages besides synthesising the evidence for a research question.

Dilemmas in the Management of Liminal Rodents-Attitudes of Dutch Pest Controllers.

When non-human animals are labeled as 'pests', their moral status and welfare seem relatively unimportant. In a multi-stakeholder project, we develop an assessment frame for a more responsible rodent management that includes animal welfare. An online survey among 129 Dutch pest controllers was carried out in order to find out more about pest controllers' attitudes about animal welfare.

Improving Translation by Identifying Evidence for More Human-Relevant Preclinical Strategies.

Preclinical animal studies are performed to analyse the safety and efficacy of new treatments, with the aim to protect humans. However, there are questions and concerns about the quality and usefulness of preclinical animal research. Translational success rates vary between 0 and 100%, and no clear relationship has been found with possible predictive factors such as animal species or field of research.

A Systematic Review Comparing Experimental Design of Animal and Human Methotrexate Efficacy Studies for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Lessons for the Translational Value of Animal Studies.

Increased awareness and understanding of current practices in translational research is required for informed decision making in drug development. This paper describes a systematic review of methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis, comparing trial design between 147 animal and 512 human studies. Animal studies generally included fewer subjects than human studies, and less frequently reported randomisation and blinding.

Joining forces: the need to combine science and ethics to address problems of validity and translation in neuropsychiatry research using animal models.

Background: Current policies regulating the use of animals for scientific purposes are based on balancing between potential gain of knowledge and suffering of animals used in experimentation. The balancing process is complicated, on the one hand by plurality of views on our duties towards animals, and on the other hand by more recent discussions on uncertainty in the probability of reaching the final aim of the research and problems of translational failure.

Methods: The study combines ethical analysis based on a literature review with neuropsychiatry-related preclinical research as a case study.

One Health: How Interdependence Enriches Veterinary Ethics Education.

What does One Health imply for veterinary ethics education? In order to answer this question, we will first have to establish what One Health itself involves. The meaning and scope of One Health, however, cannot be established without reference to its values-whose health matters? Veterinary ethics education is well equipped to facilitate such an open-ended inquiry into multispecies health. One Health also widens the scope of veterinary ethics by making salient, among other fields, environmental ethics, global health justice, and non-Western approaches to ethics.

Animal models for cystic fibrosis: A systematic search and mapping review of the literature - Part 1: genetic models.

Animal models for cystic fibrosis (CF) have enhanced our understanding of the pathology and contributed to the development of new treatments. In the field of CF, many animal models have been developed and described. To our knowledge, thus far, none of the reviews of CF animal models has used a systematic methodology.