Multicenter survey on Tunnel Handling

In a recent survey from the 3RCC assessing 231 respondents (animal caretakers, AWO, technicians, veterinarians, scientists) across various Swiss animal facilities, near 58% of these had already used tunnel handling. Animal welfare appeared as the major reason for using tunnel handling, which was also rated a high level of satisfaction. Nearly a third of the respondents used tunnel handling regularly. However, a number of hurdles appear to limit the implementation of tunnel handling as a standard of mouse handling such as i) sterilization capacities, ii) the time required to perform such manipulations, iii) the costs. The impact on research data acquisition is also debated.

Background

A number of Swiss HEIs have started to test and incorporate tunnel handling in their facilities, but a global assessment on the benefits and hurdles of its implementation in Swiss facilities is missing. Originating from discussions with the CoC working group, this project stems from the fact that multiple institutions were found starting to implement or test the benefits of tunnel handling in their animal facility.

Aim

This project aims evaluating such benefits in order to formulate a recommendation that would facilitate the implementation of tunnel handling in Swiss facilities. This will be performed with an on-line surveys to animal facility managers and staff as well as semi-structured interviews to animal facility managers.

Output

A recommendation in favor of the use of tunnel handling in Swiss facilities was generated based on the cumulated evidence from the various 3RCC partners.

Project team

Christopher R. Cederroth, Boris Jerchow, Mathias Yamahachi, Stephanie Claudinot, Andrina Zbinden.