Claudia Mertens

Zurich animal protection society

Induced mutations can cause new and unpredictable phenotypes and may impact the health and welfare of animals. Impairments may arise within normal husbandry and breeding regimes i.e. before starting to do experiments. In order to apply the 3R principles and to use transgenic animals under high scientific and welfare standards, two structured forms...

For the 72nd Psychiatric Saar-Lorr-Lux Symposium (Sept. 2004 at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital (CHNP) in Ettelbruck, LUXEMBOURG), Dr. Jean-Marie Spautz, director, brought together professionals of varied disciplines, each involved in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT).

Methods of transgenesis in vertebrate animals in the laboratory involve the stable addition or selective substitution of defined genes into the germline. Although there is a continuous and remarkable development in transgenic technology-the quality of transgenes, gene-targeting vectors, and experimental approaches-the consequences for the phenotype...

When "creating" transgenic mouse strains it is not possible to predict their phenotype with certainty, particularly not with respect to welfare. The generation of models for (human) diseases deliberately implies a compromised health ranging from minor (clinically inapparent) to lethal. To ensure animal welfare requirements and apply the criteria of...

A comprehensive form for the standardised documentation of transgenic rodents. genotype, phenotype, welfare assessment, recommendations for refinement When "creating" transgenic mouse strains it is not possible to predict their phenotype with certainty, particularly not (human) respect to welfare. The generation of models for (human) diseases delib...

The widespread use of transgenic animals in research, and especially for generating models of human disease, has given rise to calls for a careful documentation of transgenic strains with particular emphasis on characterizing phenotypes and their animal welfare aspects. Based upon several published suggestions for general health monitoring of labor...

According to Swiss law (as of December, 1991), the animal protection movement has the right to have representatives in Animal Experimentation Committees. These committees control the use of animals in research and teaching by reviewing research proposals that may cause suffering to animals. They then advise the authorities on whether a license to d...

Unmanipulated human-cat interactions in established relationships and in the common but very complex home setting are described and analyzed quantitatively. Fifty-one cat-owning Swiss families were visited in their homes. In a total of 504 hours of observation, the interspecific interactions of 162 persons and 72 cats were recorded. Quantitatively,...

The goal of our study was to describe tween a human and a cat and to determine the social behavior during the first encounter beinfluence of the sex of the cat, individuality of the cat, activity state of the person, and person type on the cat's behavior; and the influence of the age and sex of the human partner (person type) on his/her behavior. N...

Home range size, overlap and exploitation in domestic farm cats is examined. Data were collected on the 11 adult cats (5 O'O'; 6 ♀♀) living on 3 Swiss farms throughout 1984; 8 of the cats were fitted with radio transmitters. Census-point and focal animal methods of data collection were employed. From area-observation curves we concluded that our ho...

[Drei getrennte, künstlich bei extrem hoher Dichte gehaltene Rehgruppen mit je 4 Adult-tieren, wurden während 15 Monaten hinsichtlich ihrer Koordination des Aufenthaltsortes (Wiese oder Wald) untersucht. Verglichen wurde die Austritts-Synchronisation auf die Wiese innerhalb und zwischen den Gruppen. Auf dem gewählten Genauigkeitsniveau (Momentaufna...