Laboratory Animal Welfare
Ensuring the highest possible standards of welfare for laboratory animals is not only an ethical and legal imperative, but also has the potential to improve the quality of science produced by reducing currently uncontrolled sources of variation between animals and laboratories.
Paul Flecknell’s multi-award winning Pain Systems Group, including Johnny Roughan and Matt Leach, are at the forefront of research aimed at reducing pain and distress in laboratory animals including rats, mice and rabbits. The group is best known for development and validation of methods for practical, cage-side assessment of animal welfare that can be used by animal care staff in applied settings. However, they are also pioneering the use of state-of-the-art image analysis techniques for automatically scoring complex behaviour in rats and mice.
In addition to their research the Pain Systems Group have produced a range of educational materials. For more details please visit:
