Animal Care and Use in Toxicity Testing

Toxicologists involved in toxicity testing must be aware of the important aspects of how animals are cared for and used in the laboratory. They also need to have an understanding of how the laboratory animal itself and the animal care and use environment and program affect toxicity testing endpoints. Over the past 20 years, there have been many changes in how animals are cared for in biomedical research with a major emphasis being placed on efforts to enhance animal welfare while achieving scientific goals and objectives. This chapter reviews the laws and regulations that pertain to present-day animal care and use in the toxicity testing laboratory. It also reviews the advancements that have been made to incorporate the concept of alternatives (replacement, reduction, and refinement) into the fabric of animal care and use in the toxicity testing environment. New advancements in caging designs, environmental enrichment, and animal acclimation and training have greatly improved overall animal well-being while assigned to traditional toxicity studies.

Duke Scholars

Author Jeffrey Ira Everitt Pathology