Accomodation of laying hens in the laboratory in accordance with animal welfare requirements.

The production of antibodies from chicken eggs requires the housing of hens under laboratory conditions. Based on several years of experience, the accommodation of hens in modified dog kennels (for keeping on the floor) or guinea pig rack units (for keeping in cages) is described. The suitability of a commercially available hen"s cage is assessed as well.

Ethical considerations on animal experiments.

The current state of the controversy on experimentation with animals is presented in overview in three chapters. The authors define 4 categories of personal involvement. There is the wholehearted "advocate", for whom experiments using animals are always necessary and who will only acknowledge well-founded scientific evidence against using them; next, the "defender" of animal experiments, who accepts that ethical evaluation of each experiment is necessary; then the "critic", who will challenge the majority of experiments for either ethical or scientific reasons; finally, there is the "opponent" of animal experiments, who for ethical reasons rejects animal experiments totally.

Anxiety and Reduction of Anxiety in Animal Experiments.

Laboratory animals usually respond to new situations with anxiety and distress. This can strongly influence the results of an experiment, thereby defeating the very purpose of the experiment. For this reason as well as because of aspects of animal welfare, methods for minimizing anxiety of laboratory animals should be investigated.