All species-specific courses on one web page

7 years ago

If you work with laboratory animals, you need to understand the species you’re working with. You can learn about them in a species-specific course. All species-specific courses about working with laboratory animals given in the Netherlands are now together on a single web page.

The location is an English-language page on the Utrecht University website: www.uu.nl/LASspecies. The courses are offered by the Utrecht University faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The web page also has information about admission requirements, registration, dates and fees.

What species and groups?

Currently, there are courses offered about poultry and other birds, rodents and rabbits, pigs, carnivores (dogs, cats, ferrets), herbivores (sheep, goats, cattle), horses, fish and frogs, and non-human primates.

Conscientious and responsible

The courses aim to enable everyone to work conscientiously and responsibly with lab animals. Besides technical and methodological aspects of experiment design and procedures, much attention will be paid to ethics, welfare and alternatives in (and alternatives to) using laboratory animals. Since the hours are limited, the course can only lay a general foundation for expertise in the particular species. This expertise will be supplemented in the institution where you work, under the supervision of knowledgeable colleagues.

Courses abroad

More information about courses in other countries can be found on the site of the Education and Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS).