REVIEW ON WELFARE OF LABORATORY ANIMALS: SEVERAL THEORICAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Animal welfare is a concept that is increasingly concerned in the world and in Vietnam, including the welfare of laboratory animals. Animal welfare can be simply defined as the good treatment of animals, keeping the animals at a good physical and mental health conditions, preventing them from pain suffering. Improvement of welfare quality of laboratory animals will not only enable them to grow better and healthier, but also ensure a better result of the biological testing. To improve welfare of laboratory animals, the animal keeping centers need to pay attention to some factors related to housing and living environmental conditions, caring and handling practices, culling and cullinging methods. Several specific recommendations are also made to improve the welfare of rodents (guinea pig, mice and rat) when keeping them as laboratory animals