Behavioral Management Programs to Promote Laboratory Animal Welfare

Abstract

Animal care in research, teaching, and testing facilities has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past two decades, and there is a heightened emphasis on the psychological status of animals living in these institutions. Today, providing for the psychological well-being of research animals is an integral part of animal care programs and is key to promoting a “culture of caring” within our facilities. This change occurred as the scientific community realized that animals have many behavioral needs, which, if not met, can adversely affect their behavior, physical health, and research utility. Programs to address the well-being of laboratory animals by providing them with more complex and interesting environments are now common across all taxa, including primates, dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, rodents, rabbits, birds, and fish.The term behavioral management refers to a comprehensive approach to improving the welfare of captive animals by employing social housing, environmental enrichment, animal training, facility design, and the assessment of behavior and behavioral problems. Behavioral management builds from a foundation of understanding the behavior of the target species (or of closely related species) in natural conditions, with the aim of improving animal care and enhancing animal welfare. An important premise of behavioral management is that the individual components of enrichment, animal training, social housing, and behavioral assessment can be integrated to achieve behavioral goals for captive animals better and more completely than any one technique applied in isolation. Behavioral management practices that improve psychological well-being and reduce stress for research subjects are important refinements in animal care.Social housing of laboratory animals is fundamental to effective behavioral management programs since the most commonly used laboratory animals are social species. The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (hereafter referred to as the Guide) states, “Appropriate social interactions among members of the same species (conspecifics) are essential to normal development and well-being” (National Research Council 2011, p. 64). Social housing in compatible groupings or pairs offers the animals opportunities for engaging in a variety of species-typical behaviors, such as grooming, affiliation, agonism, play, and rearing of offspring. Social housing also reduces the occurrence of abnormal behaviors in many species, and it generally is especially important to socially house young animals.Environmental enrichment enhances the well-being of animals by providing them with species-specific opportunities for exercise and manipulating objects, and cognitive challenges (Guide, p. 53). Enrichment is classified into broad and overlapping categories, including four types of nonsocial enrichment: feeding, physical, sensory, and cognitive and occupational enrichment (Keeling et al. 1991). When used together, these different categories of enrichment can improve many different facets of the animals’ behavioral repertoire.Animal training, and especially positive reinforcement training (PRT), is another component of behavioral management programs. PRT is a form of conditioning in which the subjects are given positive reinforcement (e.g., food treat or social interaction) following their performance of a desired behavior. PRT relies on the voluntary cooperation of animals, rather than on compelling them to comply through manual restraint or chemical restraint. PRT is generally seen as preferable to negative reinforcement training, in which the subject performs a desired behavior to avoid or escape from a negative stimulus (e.g., loud sound). While PRT has been used most often with nonhuman primates, it is now being applied to a variety of other laboratory animal species.Behavioral assessment and monitoring are important aspects of behavioral management programs, as they are needed to identify behavioral problems, determine needed treatments for those problems, and assess whether treatments are effective. Behavioral assessment can be based on quantitative behavioral data collection and formal studies of behavioral change, or on a systematic application of less rigorous methods.Specialized positions in behavioral management are becoming more common as research facilities are employing more individuals with expertise in behavior and animal welfare. When this type of focused position is not in place, others in the organization should be designated to take on the behavioral responsibilities, and this should be included as part of their job descriptions; performance of these responsibilities should be measured in their performance reviews; and they should be given the resources to learn about behavioral management.Behavioral management programs (sometimes referred to as environmental enrichment programs or psychological well-being programs) are required by some regulatory agencies and are emphasized in professional standards of research animal care across the world. Multinational organizations such as the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science have set out principles of responsibility and oversight for countries with animal research and teaching programs, and these include the principle that the animals’ environment and management are species appropriate and contribute to their well-being (iclas.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CIOMS-ICLAS-Principles-Final1.pdf). Some countries have established federal legislation that addresses these programs. For example, in the United States, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations direct that research institutions must “develop, document, and follow an appropriate plan for environment enhancement adequate to promote psychological well-being of nonhuman primates” (9 CFR 3.81; U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] 1991, www.nal.usda.gov/awic/final-rules-animal-welfare-9-cfr-part-3-0 ). This environmental enhancement plan should be an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)–approved policy or standard operating procedure (SOP), and it must be made available to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and any federal funding agency upon request. The AWA also requires exercise for dogs (Section 13(a)(2)(B) of the AWA [7 USC 2143]). Live vertebrate animal research being conducted with federal funding from the U.S. Public Health Service (notably including funding from the National Institutes of Health) must comply with the Guide. The Guide stipulates that enrichment should be provided for all laboratory animals. In addition, those research facilities that choose to become accredited by AAALAC International must also comply with the Guide or with the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching (Federation of Animal Science Societies 2010), which also describes the provision of enrichment, and says most forms of enrichment should be provided. All relevant legal and professional standards should be followed when behavioral management programs are developed.