Review by Kathy Lyon 
(Click on stars for an explanation) |
This book is Out of Print. |
This book is directed at veterinarians, veterinary technicians, students, and laboratory animal personnel. The book is primarily animal care in the laboratory environment, including traditional animal care techniques, animal husbandry, and biology. It includes pain management and surgery.
The progress of the book takes the reader through the steps necessary to apply for a license for research (British regulations), a history of animal use in research, ethics of animal use in experiments, statistics of animal use, and other relevant legislation in the UK. Similar steps would likely be necessary for laboratory animal care and use in this country. The book goes on the discuss health, safety, and security of the personnel, whether working as a team or as a lone researcher; pain, stress, and humane endpoints; humane methods of killing; anesthesia of laboratory animals; management of pain, suffering, distress, and lasting harm; conduct of minor procedures; and introduction to surgery and suturing. There is also a section on various species, covering behavior, housing, handling, feeding, environment, breeding, growth, pain/stress recognition, common diseases, health monitoring, biological/reference data, and drug doses for anesthesia/analgesia.
There is a discussion of the creation and monitoring of genetically altered animals and harmful mutants, which discusses the selective breeding for certain traits important for research models.
The book is very thorough. Overall I think this is a good book for laboratory reference. It is factual, and it accurately addresses the conditions under which animals are used in research. Some statements are odd -- for example, that dogs must be lifted from the left-hand side, and that perspiration from a hand can damage waterproofing on a bird -- but those statements are not going to make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
The book's attitude is hard-core research, but it's certainly an important book to read if you are to conduct research or understand the research arena.
Blackwell Publishing, Ames, IA (2003).
Paperback, 400 pages, illustrated with photos and drawings, 6 3/4" x 9 3/4".
ISBN: 978-1-4051-1159-1.