3Rs - search page

The Swiss 3R Competence Centre (3RCC) promotes the 3Rs principle (replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experimentation) among the scientific community and the public. To facilitate the development and implementation of effective 3R methods and improve animal welfare it challenges research paradigms and creates innovative alternatives to animal use.

AALAS is an association of professionals that advances responsible laboratory animal care and use to benefit people and animals.

Vaccination of animals against disease protects them from suffering. However, this comes with an animal welfare cost - the safety and efficacy of vaccines is assessed in experimental animals and the tests involved can cause significant pain and distress. There is an ethical dilemma in protecting one set of animals at the expense of others but implementation of the 3Rs can help to resolve this. The research animals department works with researchers involved in vaccine testing and regulators to promote the 3Rs in this important area.

These photographic guides should be used in conjunction with our Welfare Monitoring Tools to identify behaviours which indicate positive and negative welfare. Video guides to behaviour are also available. 

This page provides access to searchable, hypertext listings of inbred strains of mice and inbred strains of rats. Both sets of information were provided by Dr. Michael FW Festing (MRC Toxicology Unit) and were converted for Web presentation by the Mouse Genome Informatics Group at The Jackson Laboratory.