Abstract
FELASA Working Groups are very active under the supervision of Vice-President Working Groups Martina Dorsch. There are currently about a dozen active Working Groups listed on the dedicated webpage: http://www.felasa.eu/working-groups. Topics for future Working Groups are discussed in every FELASA Board of Management meeting, Terms of Reference are then drafted and Working Group members are selected following their nominations by FELASA member associations.
Most Working Groups have two years to write some recommendations, which are published in Laboratory Animals. Lately, FELASA started to sponsor these recommendations’ Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0). This allows anyone to read, share and re-use the FELASA recommendations at no cost without permission as long as the publication is properly referenced. This year, three Working Groups’ recommendations have been approved. This licence allows others to re-use the Contribution.
The Working Group on health monitoring of non-human primates concluded their good work with the ‘Revised recommendations for health monitoring of non-human primate colonies (2018): FELASA Working Group Report’ by Ivan Balansard (convener), Lorna Cleverley, Keith Cutler, Mats Spångberg, Kevin Thibault-Duprey and Jan Langermans.
The rodent genetics Working Group finalized their extensive recommendations with ‘Genetic quality assurance and genetic monitoring of laboratory mice and rats. FELASA Working Group Report’ by Fernando Benavides (convener), Thomas Rülicke, Jan-Bas Prins, James Bussell, Ferdinando Scavizzi, Paolo Cinelli, Yann Herault and Dirk Wedekind.
The hard work of the joint FELASA/COST action with EuFishBioMed on zebrafish husbandry resulted in ‘Zebrafish: Housing and husbandry recommendations’ by Peter Aleström, Livia D’Angelo, Paul Midtlyng, Daniel Schorderet, Stefan Schulte-Merker, Frederic Sohm and Susan Warner.
The Working Group on ‘Farm animals – Health and welfare of ruminants and pigs’ with Corina Mihaela Berset (Convenor), Maria Emiliana Caristo, Fabienne Ferrara, Patrick Hardy, Marianne Oropeza-Moe and Ryan Waters is going to finalize its report soon.
All these FELASA Working Groups’ recommendations are published in Laboratory Animals and are available on-line ahead of the printed journal. Have a good read!
FELASA Honorary Secretary, FELASA, UK