Course Advanced course in Laboratory Animal Science

The course B116/ Advanced course in Laboratory Animal Science is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: You must have passed a basic laboratory animal science course (EU category A/D course). Individuals participating should normally hold an academic degree or equivalent in an appropriate scientific discipline.

Aim: To ensure participants are able to apply the Three Rs (reduce, replace, refine) effectively in the design of procedures and projects and make appropriate ethical and scientific judgments. The course is obligatory for persons who wish to achieve a personal license to independently plan, implement and take responsibility for the design and performance of animal experimentation within the European Union according to the EU Directive 2010/63/EU Article 23.2 and the Danish executive order 12 of 07/01/2016, §56.

Learning outcomes: 

• Advanced insight into Danish and International legislation concerning animals used for scientific purposes, the ethical aspects of working with laboratory animals as well as the principles of the Three Rs.
• Detailed knowledge of different aspects of ethics and the Three Rs in relation to both ethical and welfare issues raised by the use of animals in scientific procedures.
• Knowledge of experimental design concepts, possible causes and elimination of bias, statistical analysis and information about where expertise can be found to assist with procedure, design, planning and the interpretation of results.
• Insight into the use of animal models in biomedical research and their benefits and limitations.
• Insight into the importance of standardization of environmental, microbiological factors and use of humane endpoints.
• Knowledge about advanced experimental procedures such as microsurgery, anaesthesia, analgesia and euthanasia in rodent laboratory animals.
• Write an application for a procedure to the Danish Ministry of Health.

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 65 hours

Content: The course will provide didactic and hands-on training in the use of rodents as biomedical research models.  The theoretical lectures will include ethics, animal welfare, the Three Rs as well as design and analysis of animal experiments and advanced anaesthesia and analgesia for surgical procedures. Plenum discussions will introduce concepts such as fidelity, discrimination and validity and provide the basis for critically evaluating and selecting appropriate rodents models for a given research question or area Practical exercises will be performed in rodents and include basic surgical technique as well as principles of microsurgery and advanced techniques.

During the course, the participant will write an application to obtain a permit to perform a procedure in an animal. By the end of the course the written permit will be evaluated and discussed in plenum.

Instructors: Martin K. Thomsen et al.,

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus.

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 27 October 2025 08:00 - 16:00
• 28 October 2025 08:00 - 16:00
• 29 October 2025 08:00 - 16:00
• 30 October 2025 08:00 - 16:00
• 31 October 2025 08:00 - 16:00