Why Animal Wellness Is the Secret to Better Research: 3 Must-Know Tips for Ethical Care

Animal welfare is a gateway, not a barrier, to groundbreaking research. Many researchers overlook this distinction and continue with poor experimental design that produce low-quality data and expose animal subjects to undue distress. One of the 3 R’s, refinement, requires continuous efforts towards reducing animal “pain, suffering, and distress¹,” and researchers must uphold their responsibility to animals to remain aligned with regulatory requirements and produce high-quality data. This article will cover three tips for ethical animal care in in vivo research, covering areas such as stress-free environments, achieving regulatory alignment, and consistent animal health monitoring. The purpose of this piece is to arm researchers with the knowledge and practical strategies necessary to achieve and maintain animal welfare standards while conducting rigorous, reliable research.

How Ethical Care Drives Better Research Outcomes

The idea that improved animal welfare leads to better science has been around since at least the late 90s². A key aspect of this claim is that animals experiencing stress or inappropriate health issues do not accurately reflect the conditions they are supposedly modeling³. Research has found that animal stress and underlying health issues can lead to confounding variables that negatively impact research outcomes^4–6. Thus, prioritizing animal welfare in research can help to limit data variability while fostering ethical responsibility. Improved animal care and adherence to regulatory standards also builds public trust, strengthens funding prospects, and leads to higher-quality, reproducible outcomes, benefiting both researchers and society.

Prioritizing Stress-Free Environments

Everybody knows that stress affects our own physiology, altering our susceptibility to disease and changing our behavior in different environments⁷. However, these effects are often overlooked in animal studies. While ethical considerations are of primary concern, scientists must also view animal stress as a source of unwanted variation that skews data, leading to misleading conclusions or the need for repeat experiments.

Researchers should consult best practice guidelines, such as the 3Rs, for specific guidance on their species, emphasizing the following areas:

• Optimized housing
• Nutrition
• Environmental enrichment

Failure to adhere to best practices can severely affect experimental integrity. For example, mouse facilities are typically kept at temperatures between 20-25°C for the comfort of human staff, despite the thermoneutral temperature for mice being closer to 30°C. Research has found that mice behavior differs significantly depending on the ambient temperature. For instance, mice eat less food at 22°C than at 30°C but somewhat paradoxically do not gain comparable weight on obesogenic diets⁸. This has obvious implications for applying experimental results to humans, as we do not experience constant cold stress in our daily lives. Furthermore, suboptimal temperatures affect tumor growth in mouse models of cancer⁹.

Keep in mind that these variables result from failing to meet a single aspect of proper animal welfare, and shortcomings in other areas can be just as disruptive¹⁰.

Prioritize Reduction

One of the 3Rs, reduction, focuses on minimizing the number of animals used in experiments¹. This goal can be achieved through optimized experimental design, effective data sharing, and the application of robust statistical methods. Maintaining adequate statistical power in mouse studies is critical for animal welfare, as it minimizes the need for unnecessary repetitions and reduces the overall number of animals used¹¹. In addition to improving animal welfare, prioritizing reduction can lead to other benefits, such as optimized resource allocation and reduced costs for researchers.

Consistent Monitoring and Health Checks

Health issues can arise in animals for various reasons and lead to variables that affect the reliability of results⁶. For instance, some animals used in research do not have fully functioning immune systems and are therefore vulnerable to infection. Regular health monitoring means researchers can catch health issues early and take corrective action. This can include addressing the immediate medical needs of the animal and removing specific time points or animals from the final analysis.

It is vital to establish a regular monitoring routine with reference to the current best practices for the species in question. This can include daily checks of animal well-being and more in-depth monitoring of specific health parameters depending on the species and the genetic background.

The more information researchers gather about animal well-being, the better equipped they are to draw accurate conclusions from their data and to explain unexpected trends. Ultimately, noticing and recording fluctuations in animal health leads to more consistent and reproducible results. 

ModernVivo: Moving Forward with Ethical and Effective Research Practices

As research standards continue to evolve, prioritizing animal wellness is more than just an ethical responsibility—it’s a strategic advantage that fosters better, more reliable data. By creating stress-free environments, streamlining IACUC compliance, and implementing consistent health monitoring, researchers can drive improvements in both study integrity and animal welfare.

The ModernVivo platform empowers scientists to design experiments using the latest models and methods, including modern approaches to animal welfare. Specifically, ModernVivo allows scientists to tailor their literature reviews towards factors that directly influence animal well-being, including parameters like light scheduling, temperature, environmental enrichment, nutrition, and more^8,12. By providing broad and deep coverage of the available literature, ModernVivo helps researchers pinpoint studies with optimized protocols for animal wellbeing that they might otherwise have missed.

Ready to elevate your research practices? Embrace these wellness-driven strategies to meet regulatory standards, gain public trust, and produce groundbreaking results that propel science forward.

ModernVivo provides the ultimate platform for automating the design of ethical in vivo experiments. Get in touch with us today to discuss the future of ethically-driven animal experimentation.

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References

1. The 3Rs | NC3Rs. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://nc3rs.org.uk/who-we-are/3rs

2. Poole T. Happy animals make good science. Lab Anim. 1997;31(2):116-124. doi:10.1258/002367797780600198

3. Prescott MJ, Lidster K. Improving quality of science through better animal welfare: the NC3Rs strategy. Lab Anim. 2017;46(4):152-156. doi:10.1038/laban.1217

4. Layton R, Layton D, Beggs D, Fisher A, Mansell P, Stanger KJ. The impact of stress and anesthesia on animal models of infectious disease. Front Vet Sci. 2023;10:1086003. doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1086003

5. Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Doyle WJ, et al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012;109(16):5995-5999. doi:10.1073/pnas.1118355109

6. Burkholder T, Foltz C, Karlsson E, Linton CG, Smith JM. Health Evaluation of Experimental Laboratory Mice. Curr Protoc Mouse Biol. 2012;2:145-165. doi:10.1002/9780470942390.mo110217

7. Yaribeygi H, Panahi Y, Sahraei H, Johnston TP, Sahebkar A. The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI J. 2017;16:1057-1072. doi:10.17179/excli2017-480

8. Seeley RJ, MacDougald OA. Mice as experimental models for human physiology: when several degrees in housing temperature matter. Nat Metab. 2021;3(4):443-445. doi:10.1038/s42255-021-00372-0

9. Kokolus KM, Capitano ML, Lee CT, et al. Baseline tumor growth and immune control in laboratory mice are significantly influenced by subthermoneutral housing temperature. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013;110(50):20176-20181. doi:10.1073/pnas.1304291110

10. Ueno H, Takahashi Y, Suemitsu S, et al. Effects of repetitive gentle handling of male C57BL/6NCrl mice on comparative behavioural test results. Sci Rep. 2020;10(1):3509. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-60530-4

11. Festing MFW, Altman DG. Guidelines for the Design and Statistical Analysis of Experiments Using Laboratory Animals. ILAR Journal. 2002;43(4):244-258. doi:10.1093/ilar.43.4.244

12. Lucas RJ, Allen AE, Brainard GC, et al. Recommendations for measuring and standardizing light for laboratory mammals to improve welfare and reproducibility in animal research. PLoS Biol. 2024;22(3):e3002535. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3002535

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^{AI Disclosure: Some of this content was generated with assistance from AI tools for copywriting.}