Hands-On Support

1. Accreditation as an involved person or study director for animal experiments

In order to work with experimental animals, you must be accredited by your local cantonal veterinary office. Depending on your role at your institution, this will either mean getting accredited as an involved person (animal experimenter) or as a study director. If you meet all the requirements for your specific role (see Art. 132 & 134, TSchV), you can get accredited right away. Otherwise you have to take specific courses in order to meet the requirements. Your AWO can support you in this process.

2. Writing an application for performing animal experiments

Before you start writing an application, it is highly recommended to get in touch with your local AWO already during the planning phase. The AWO can provide you with all necessary information that is needed. Experience has shown that it is very useful to discuss your plans / study design / animal model with the AWO beforehand, so that he/she can support you in the best way possible. This might range from identifying any bigger obstacles / questions upfront, to direct hands on tips on how to best structure your license application, to the question if pilot studies are needed, and where you can find helpful documents. In order to get the best support, be prepared and consider the points below...

3. Planning your experiment

The following links provide you with information, which will help you planning and designing your experiment.

• PREPARE guidelines, a gold standard list for setting up an animal study

• The Experimental Design Assistant (EDA), a free online tool from the NC3Rs designed to guide researchers through the design of their experiments

• Contact your local biostatistician. Your local AWO can tell you, if there is such a person at your institution, who can support you in designing your studies properly!

• Get in touch with the head of the animal facility of your institution in order to discuss your plans / animal model / breeding needs

• GV-SOLAS statement on single housing of mice

4. Performing your experiment

The following links provide you with information, which will help you performing your experiment.

• Technical information sheets from the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO). Especially consider the sheets on severity degrees (1.04), metabolism cages (2.06), euthanasia (3.01), blood sampling¹ (3.02) and anesthesia / analgesia (3.03)

• GV-SOLAS expert information on pain management

• GV-SOLAS specialist information for administration of substances

1st note: The guideline on blood collection is outdated and has not yet been revised. The AWO-N has therefore written a draft for a new guideline on its own initiative (see Activities).

5. Evaluating & publishing your experiment

The following links provide you with information, which will help you analyzing and publishing your results.

• ARRIVE GUIDELINES, a checklist of recommendations to improve the reporting of animal research.

• Gold Standard Publication Checklist (GSPC)

• Other reporting guidelines