Animal welfare

At Liverpool, we work towards maintaining the highest standards of animal welfare and invest heavily in our facilities.

We have staff and procedures in place to ensure the welfare of animals:

• Our fully trained care staff hold degrees in animal care and qualifications accredited by the Institute of Animal Technology
• We employ a full-time animal care and welfare officer and a veterinary surgeon to ensure best practice is implemented and maintained
• We house animals in social groups wherever possible and provide a rich and varied environment to allow a range of natural behaviours.

Our ethical review process involves individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including vets, animal welfare officers, scientists and lay people. It provides ethical advice on standards of animal care, welfare and accommodation and ensures that those working with animals are aware of their responsibilities and receive appropriate training.

Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body

The University has established an Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body to address the ethical review requirements for this type of research.

Read the Terms of Reference (pdf).

Reduction, refinement and replacement

The University of Liverpool is fully committed to research designed to reduce, refine and replace animals used for scientific purposes, this is normally referred to as the 3Rs - the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal models. The 3Rs have become embedded in national and international legislation regulating the use of animals in scientific procedures.

For each of our research projects at Liverpool this ensures, as far as is reasonably practicable, that no non-animal alternative is possible, that the number of animals used is minimised and that procedures and standards of care are refined to maximise welfare.

The 3Rs are:

• Replacement: We are actively involved in the search for new technologies that help us to avoid the use of animals in research.
• Reduction: We employ methods that minimise the number of animals used in experiments.
• Refinement: We use methods that minimise suffering and improve animal welfare.

The 3Rs are increasingly seen as a framework for conducting high quality science in the academic and industrial sectors with more focus on developing alternative approaches which avoid the use of animals.

We actively encourage our staff to engage with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), which aims to develop scientifically robust, non-animal alternatives and, where animal use continues to be necessary, works to reduce the number of animals involved and improve welfare practices.