The 3Rs Sharing Conference V is a one-day conference that will address the reduction of pain and distress in laboratory animal medicine in an effort to improve overall laboratory animal welfare. The conference will include presentations on key research developments, practical skills development and planning sessions to advance pain and distress related research.
The 3Rs Sharing Conference V is designed to engage laboratory animal care staff, as well as scientists in research, development and testing, who are collectively implementing innovative strategies to move science forward.
Conference participants will be provided with:
- Evidence-based approaches that speed science and improve animal welfare;
- Alternatives and methods for the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal models in biomedical research;
- A forum where the scientific community can share best practices and challenge the status quo; and
- Guidance as to how to reframe internal and external discussions to reflect the community’s overarching commitment to implementing 3Rs principles in concert with innovative bioscience.
Presenting Sponsor
Sponsors
Program Overview
Morning Plenary Sessions
The 3Rs Sharing Conference V will open with four presentations from noted experts in the biomedical research community, including senior regulators from the United States Department of Agriculture, investigators from North Carolina’s renowned biomedical research community and internationally recognized leaders in animal welfare and pain research.
Morning plenary presentations will explore opportunities and approaches needed to eliminate pain and distress and to reduce animal numbers in testing, while the research, development and validation necessary to achieve full replacement of animals is pursued. Conference attendees will improve current understandings about pain and distress, they will examine pain scoring methodologies, and they will learn to both recognize and manage pain in laboratory animals through behavior evaluation. The benefits of emerging animal models, including zebrafish, also will be reviewed to help explain how moving to lower vertebrates can improve animal welfare and the translational value of research.
Afternoon Breakout Sessions
Breakout Option 1: Practical Approaches to the 3Rs
This option will offer three individual workshops exploring refinement techniques and the successful implementation of the 3Rs in research institutions. These sessions will help attendees increase the translational value of animal models and foster the effective implementation of reduction strategies, and they will explore data-supported refinement techniques of nonhuman primate, rodent and other disease models. These sessions also will reinforce the scientific value of the 3Rs, as well as ethical decision-making to reduce pain and distress in laboratory animals.
Breakout Option 2: Assessing Pain and Distress – A Collaborative Approach to Improving Laboratory Animal Welfare
This option will provide review of current pain scoring assessments and an overview of the many assessment methods that have been used in various species, and particularly in rodents, to assess pain or non-pain distress. Participants will share their first-hand experiences with assessing pain and distress, and they will explore possibilities for working collaboratively to solve some of the most important questions relating to pain and distress in laboratory animal research.
Agenda
7:30 am - 8:25 am
Registration & Breakfast
8:25 am - 8:30 am
Welcome & Introductions
8:30 am - 9:15 am
Animals and the 3Rs: The Way Forward
William S. Stokes, DVM, DACLAM, DACAW, BCES, FATS
Assistant Director, Animal Welfare Operations
USDA, APHIS, Animal Care
Despite concerted efforts to eliminate the use of animals in testing over several decades and the availability of many accepted alternative methods, animals are still widely used for research and testing. Until regulatory authorities have accepted test methods that can totally replace animals and these are fully implemented, large numbers of animals will continue to be used and many will continue to experience significant pain and distress. In order to positively impact the welfare of these animals, efforts must be directed at eliminating pain and distress and reducing animal numbers. This presentation will discuss opportunities and approaches urgently needed to eliminate pain and distress and to reduce animal numbers in testing, while research, development and validation necessary to achieve full replacement of animals are pursued.
9:15 am - 10:00 am
Distress Deconstructed: How Much do We Know?
Alicia Karas, DVM, MS, DACVAA
Assistant Professor of Clinical Services
Cummings Veterinary Medical Center
Tufts University
This presentation will address important questions such as: How do we define distress? What is the effect of distress on scientific outcomes? How can we know what is distressful to animals? What are some examples of best practices in terms of preventing distress, and are they workable?
10:00 am - 10:15 am
Break
10:15 am - 11:00 am
Listening to What They Tell Us: Using Behavior as an Indicator of Pain
Margaret Gruen, DVM, MVPH, PhD, DACVB
Postdoctoral Associate and Stanton Foundation Fellow
Duke University
This presentation will discuss the use of behavioral signs as indicators of pain, including the current tools and behavioral scales available. The lecture will focus on chronic pain in cats, with discussion of pain in other species.
11:00 am - 11:45 am
Zebrafish: A Tractable In Vivo Model of Human Genetic Disease
Erica E. Davis, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Duke University
The research enterprise is currently the beneficiary of whole genome sequencing technologies that can be employed to generate accurate data relatively inexpensively, and with a short turnaround time to facilitate diagnosis of inherited genetic conditions in humans. At the same time, we are faced with the challenge of interpreting genetic variation through the use of either in silico prediction tools, or through the use of in vitro and/or in vivo models. Here, we present the zebrafish as a tractable and medium-throughput animal model system to study candidate genes identified in children with rare structural birth defects.
11:45 am - 12:00 pm
Transition to lunch
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Lunch
12:45 pm - 1:00 pm
Transition to breakout sessions
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Breakout Sessions
See descriptions below
4:15 pm - 5:00 pm
Closing Plenary: Implementing the National Academy’s Vision for Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century
Warren Casey, PhD, DABT
Director, NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM)
NIH/NIEHS/DNTP
This presentation will discuss the near-term (less than two years) replacement of animals for acute toxicity testing and longer term efforts needed to replace more complex repeat-dose studies such as carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity testing.
5:00 pm
Adjourn
Breakout Session - Option 1: Practical Approaches to the 3Rs
Practical Approaches to the 3Rs
This option will offer three individual workshops exploring refinement techniques and the successful implementation of the 3Rs in research institutions. These sessions will help attendees increase the translational value of animal models and foster the effective implementation of reduction strategies, and they will explore data-supported refinement techniques of nonhuman primate, rodent and other disease models. These sessions also will reinforce the scientific value of the 3Rs, as well as ethical decision-making to reduce pain and distress in laboratory animals.
Facilitator:
Chandra D. Williams, DVM, DACLAM
University Veterinarian and Vivarium Director
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Utilization of Holistic Reduction and Refinement to Make Preclinical Research More Effective in Complex Nonhuman Primate Disease Models
Melanie Graham, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
University of Minnesota
Nonhuman primate models are highly relevant models for evaluating the safety and efficacy of therapeutics targeting disease conditions such as diabetes, infectious disease and neurological disease. Clinical patients in these categories often experience and report a reduction in measured quality of life parameters. A valid model closely reflects the condition and management of disease in patients together with the added requirement for serial sampling necessary in safety and efficacy trials. We present the Type 1 diabetic nonhuman primate model as an implementation example for refinement techniques that strictly limit harm to animals. Likewise, we objectively demonstrate the scientific value of minimizing stressors introduced by experimental design and handling to reduce confounding in sensitive models. Progressive refinement strategies unequivocally benefit our animals and can enhance predictive value of the model when effectively utilized.
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Rodent Endoscopy: Refinement for Rodent Drug Studies and Model Development, and Monitoring of Neoplastic, Inflammatory and Metabolic Diseases
Szczepan Baran, DVM, MS
Global Head, Animal Welfare and Compliance Training
Novartis
During this session, we will provide comparison of rodent laparotomy and laparoscopic surgical methods, and we will describe the utilization of laparoscopy for the development of cancer models and assessment of disease progression to improve data collection and animal welfare. In addition, currently available rodent endoscopic equipment and instrumentation will be presented.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The Use of Non-Invasive In Vivo Imaging Techniques and the Potential Reduction of Animal Usage in Research
Hong Yuan, PhD
Director, BRIC Small Animal Imaging Facility
Research Associate Professor
Radiology, School of Medicine
UNC Chapel Hill
In vivo imaging on animal models provides a non-invasive means for basic and translational research using animal models. This presentation will introduce various imaging modalities that are used in the research fields of neuroscience, oncology, cardiology, and pharmaceutical science, etc. Animal handling and care for imaging experiments will be outlined to demonstrate reductions on pain and stress. In addition, study design will be discussed regarding ways imaging can help reduce the number of animals used for research, improve study efficiency and data quality, while not compromising research goals.
Breakout Session - Option 2: Assessing Pain and Distress
Assessing Pain and Distress – A Collaborative Approach to Improving Laboratory Animal Welfare
This option will provide review of current pain scoring assessments and an overview of the many assessment methods that have been used in various species, and particularly in rodents, to assess pain or non-pain distress. Participants will share their first-hand experiences with assessing pain and distress, and they will explore possibilities for working collaboratively to solve some of the most important questions relating to pain and distress in laboratory animal research.
Facilitator:
Angela King-Herbert, DVM, DACLAM
Head, Laboratory Animal Medicine
Division of the National Toxicology Program
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Key Elements of a Robust Assessment Scheme
Margaret Gruen, MS, DVM, PhD
Alicia Karas, DVM, MS, DACVAA
Panel Members
This session will provide an overview of the necessary key elements of a “scoring” or assessment system. A list of the many assessment methods that have been used in rodents to assess pain or non-pain distress will be provided. Clarification about “clinical” vs. “experimental” assessment methods will be addressed.
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Current Practices
Alicia Karas, DVM, MS, DACVAA
Panel Members
This session will feature a facilitated discussion with audience participants, the facilitator and panel members about assessment methods currently used in research institutions with a focus on rodents, including who performs assessments at their institutions and when scores and results can or should lead to the use of additional analgesia or change methods and practices. Participants will review how long the ideal assessment method would take and any obstacles encountered. The session will assist participants in improving assessment methods used within their own institutions.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Rodent Assessment Schemes: A Collaborative Session to Advance
Understanding of Rodent Distress to Develop Prevention and Intervention Strategies
Alicia Karas, DVM, MS, DACVAA
Panel Members
A number of methods have been studied and employed to assess pain and non-pain distress in laboratory rodents. These methods range from complex, technology-rich strategies to simple body weight measurement. The laboratory animal professional is tasked with helping establish monitoring schemes as part of their commitment to welfare, but this is a challenge. Is there a robust, evidence-based method that works in multiple situations? How do we sort through the information out there to help the rodents in our facilities? What ways can we envision to bring the power of multiple institutions to solve some of the most important questions in use of laboratory animals? This session will build upon the prior sessions to help build a framework for collaboration in an effort to improve laboratory animal welfare and the refinement of assessment methodologies.
Continuing Education Details
The 3Rs Sharing Conference V (Program 1047-27562) has been approved by the AAVSB RACE to offer a total of 10.50 CE Credits (7.50 max) being available to any one veterinarian: and/or 10.50 Veterinary Technician CE Credits (7.50 max). This RACE approval is for the subject matter category of Category Two: Non-Scientific-Clinical using the delivery method of Seminar/Lecture. This approval is valid in jurisdictions that recognize AAVSB RACE. Participants are responsible for ascertaining each board’s CE requirements.