Assessment of the Culture of Care in Sri Lankan laboratory animal facilities and identifying challenges: A laboratory animal care staff-centered approach

Assessment of the Culture of Care (CoC) within an institution is essential in understanding the gaps in current CoC practices and highlighting what needs to be further improved. As the first responders in laboratory animal facilities, laboratory animal care staff (i.e. laboratory animal technicians and laboratory animal attendants) play a key role in establishing and sustaining a CoC. We employed the previously introduced Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to assess the CoC among Sri Lankan laboratory animal facility staff. A questionnaire-based survey was distributed, in order to assess the current state of a particular facility's CoC, based on the CMM. The survey also included questions to help identify the challenges faced by staff and evaluate the impact of Laboratory Animal Science education and training on improving the CoC. To identify further issues, a roundtable discussion involving a number of laboratory animal care staff was also conducted. This study revealed that most Sri Lankan laboratory animal facilities are currently at Level 1 of the CMM, with some showing early signs of transitioning to Level 2. Lack of management commitment and insufficiency of funds were identified as the key challenges. Lack of knowledge and training, and inadequate understanding and co-operation between co-workers and also with researchers, were stated as additional issues during the roundtable discussion. Thus, we urge training providers, such as the Sri Lanka Association for Laboratory Animal Science (SLALAS), to conduct more targeted training programmes, focusing on good CoC practices, laboratory animal welfare standards and ethical decision-making.