Information on Monitoring the well being of animal by researchers including monitoring checklists

Animal Ethics

Monitoring of animal well-being

The Animal Care and Ethics Committee (ACEC) expects that animals will be monitored on a daily basis (including weekends and public holidays) except in those circumstances which makes it impossible to do so and is agreed to by the ACEC.

"Once an animal is allocated to a project, the investigator or teacher is responsible for the day-to-day monitoring of its well-being. Prior to this allocation, it is the responsibility of the animal facility manager."(Clause 2.2.26, Australian Code, enacted under the NSW Animal Research Act)

Resources

Surveillance and Monitoring of Animal Use

Monitoring Checklist Templates

A monitoring checklist is the documentation of an overall animal well-being monitoring strategy developed by the research team and used to record the health and welfare of animals allocated to research projects. It must be approved by the Animal Care and Ethics Committee and used as approved.

The checklist must be designed so that it is:

  1. Effective without being onerous
  2. Relevant to the research protocol and the species being used
  3. Able to detect adverse animal welfare impacts as early as possible so that appropriate action can be taken to minimise animal suffering
  4. Clear and unambiguous so all persons involved in the care of the research animals understand it and can apply it appropriately

Links to examples of monitoring check lists are provided below. These should be modified to suit your research project.

General Checklists

Species Specific Checklists

Procedure Specific Checklists

Quick Links

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University of Newcastle

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