Supporting advancement of lab animal welfare and scientific integrity in developing countries: ACURET Cage Consortium (ACCON) Project.

Research involving animals remains an essential tool to increase our understanding of how human and animal bodies work; how diseases affect them and the safety assessment of chemicals, such as pesticides, for their possible effects on human health or the environment; and how diseases can be prevented or treated via developing and testing medicines and vaccines for humans or animals. To achieve high quality science based on animal manipulations and experimentations from developing countries, adequate welfare of the lab animals needs to become sine qua non for all concerned.ACURET.ORG is in the forefront of promoting humane animal care and use for scientific purposes in developing countries, with focus on Africa, seeking to aid and facilitate aspects of Institutional Lab Animal programmes in addition to its training and education programmes in the last 11 years since its inception and incorporation eight years ago. ACURET has embarked upon a project tagged 'ACURET Cage Consortium Project', the provision of re-usable 'open-top' cages for mice and rats in place of the many varied artificial housing materials being used to hold such animals in many facilities in Africa. ACURET is seeking old but functional cages and accessories, still 'fit for purpose'; other animal husbandry and research equipment, as donations from institutions and industry for distribution to institutions in Africa who require them to improve their lab animal welfare programme.With a phased funding support from Laboratory Animal Ltd., ACURET will be responsible for the collection of donated items from locations, re-package them for sea-shipping to NIMR in Lagos, from where they will be distributed to successful applying institutional animal facilities, on a 'first come, first served' basis.At the heart of the ACURET Cage Consortium Project is the enablement of researchers in Africa to engage in the essence of their research when the welfare of the laboratory animals they care for and use has been affirmed. Ultimately, we anticipate that the project will support raising the bar on Africans skilled in humane animal care and use for scientific purposes in developing countries.