Animal handling
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      Working with Animals in Studies

      This article will help you understand how to keep track of the animals in a specific study

      Animal Studies

      To navigate to the Animal Studies page, click the Studies button in the top button row on the Animal dashboard.


      Note: Studies can not be created before licenses, quotas and templates are all in place.


      To make a new study, navigate to the Animal Studies page and click on the + (plus) button in the top right toolbar.



      Give the study a name, pick a model template and define start and end date. You also have to choose a responsible Academic and a responsible Technician.


      The start and end dates are taken into account when reporting is done by the system.


      When the study is created, you are taken to the study view. The study view contains four tabs: Details, Orders, Animals and ExperimentGroup.


      Details

      View and edit the basic details defined when the study was created.

      Orders

      Create new animal purchasing orders and keep track of them. Multiple orders can be made for a study.

      To create a new order, click the + (plus) button in the top right toolbar while on the Orders tab for a study.

      Provide required details about breeder, strain, arrival date, receiver, sex, number of animals and weight/age.

      There are two tabs at the bottom of the form. The first is Study details. Here you have to commit to a Planned use data and a Planned sacrifice date. These dates are used by the system to give warnings when animals have not been sacrificed in due time.

      The second tab, Stable details, informs the stable about housing details of the animals.

      Many of the details on the order form can be pre-filled by setting them on the Ordering defaults form on Templates.

      Animals

      Here you can keep track of details on the animals in the study.

      Animals can not be created in the study view. That is done elsewhere in the application as part of the ordering workflow managed by users having the AnimalCare role.

       

      In the study we can set individual values for pain, suffering and distress. A comment field can be maintained for each animal.

      The Animals grid also provides details about what order each animal came from and if they have left the experiment for reuse. What date an animal was sacrificed is also listed.

      The Animals tab contains tools for sacrificing, releasing animals for reuse or printing cage cards. To access these tools, check the animals you want to sacrifice or release in the grid and click one of the buttons in the top right toolbar.

       

      Releasing animals

      This is the icon for releasing animals for reuse.

      When releasing animals for reuse, values for pain, suffering and distress have to be chosen.
      You have to decide what to do with the animals.

      • Move them directly to a new study.
      • Move them to an existing study.
      • Move them to the “Animal Care Pool”, but reserve them for a specific user.
      • Move them to the “Animal Care Pool”, free for anyone to pick up any of the released animals.

      Sacrificing animals

      This is the icon for sacrificing animals.

      When sacrificing animals, values for pain, suffering and distress have to be chosen.
      You also have to provide a Use specification

      • Sacrificed
      • Sacrificed - Humane endpoint related to experiment
      • Sacrificed - Humane endpoint not related to experiment
      • Sacrificed - Not used
      • Accidental death
      • Found dead - during study
      • Found dead - prior to study start

      Printing cagecards

      This is the icon for printing new cage cards.

      You have an option to print a number of “blank” cards, meaning that study details will be on the cards, but not animal numbers.