We believe that the use of experimental animals is absolutely necessary in progress of biomedical research and education.
In order to carry out properly animal research,
Laboratory Animal Research, Biomedical Education-Research Center Akita University were established in 1977. 3,500 m2 of this facilities have various animal species, for example, mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, sheep and so on. Those animals are humanely taken good care of by our staff. Our staff is composed of 10 persons; two veterinarians, 5 animal technicians, 5 animal caretakers and two office workers.
About 15,000 animals are used for research and education every year. 90% of those animals are rodents (mice and rats).
Main research projects used animals are shown in our web site. As results from those projects, more than 100 papers are produced every year.
In Japan the Law Concerning the Care and Control of Animals was revised on December 1999. On 1st December 2000 the revised Law came into force. In new legislation there was no revision about animals used for education, research and test. But in the supplementary rules of the law it is said that the Diet will reconsider the new legislation 5 years later when it comes into force. If the animal use in education, research and test had something trouble then, the new legislation might be revised again.
Akita University has established the Guideline for Animal Experimentation (the Guideline) in 1988 and set Animal Care Committee (ACC) as cornerstone of a system of self-regulation. All animal researches at this University must adhere to the Guideline. ACC has to examine animal research protocols in order to ensure that all of the animal research projects are compliance with the Guideline. Every animal research projects can not be carried out without approval by ACC.
Dogs and cats are used worldwide in scientific procedures. The purposes for their use include fundamental research. 20 years ago we used around 700 dogs and 80 cats in a year for biomedical research. Most of those dogs and cats are random-source animals derived from autonomy's animal pound. But recently it is becoming difficult to use pound dogs and cats for animal research because of animal right groups having power. The less dogs use, the more rodents use. Especially we use gene conversion animals like Tg and KO mice, and disease model animals like diabetes mice, spontaneous hypertension rats. The technical progress in biomedical and its surrounding scientific fields brings the diversity to research projects, for example gene therapy, organ transplantation and so on. Animal research is still important in finding new cures for disease.
In order to convince the necessary of animal research for the public, we open home page. Our users also can get various informations from this home page.
We make every effort to pursue the humane care and use of experimental animals by adopting the new technology and knowledge in laboratory animal sciences' field.