FELASA guidelines and recommendations

FELASA has issued a large number of guidelines, recommendations and reports within laboratory animal science:

• Pain management in zebrafish (2023)
• Recommendations of best practices for the health management of ruminants and pigs used for scientific and educational purposes (2020)
• Zebrafish: housing and husbandry recommendations (2019)
• Genetic quality assurance and genetic monitoring of laboratory mice and rats (2019)
• Revised recommendations for health monitoring of non-human primate colonies (2018)
• Recommendations for the accreditation of education and training courses in LAS (2018)
• Report: Harm-benefit analysis of animal studies - AALAS-FELASA WG (2016)
• Glossary and reporting of clinical signs (2015)
• Guidelines for the care and welfare of Cephalopods in research (2015)
• Recommendations for the accreditation of education and training courses in LAS (2015)
• Recommendations for health monitoring of rodent and rabbit colonies (2015)
• A harmonized health reporting format for international transfer of rodents (2014)
• Health monitoring of rodent and rabbit colonies (2014)
• Guidelines for the refinement of methods for genotyping genetically-modified rodents (2013)
• Report of the FELASA working group on animal identification (2013)
• Accreditation of health monitoring programmes and testing laboratories (2010)
• Recommendations for education and training: category A - Revision (2010)
• Continued education for persons involved in animal experiments (2010)
• Guidelines for the veterinary care of laboratory animals (2008)
• Report: Principles and practice in ethical review across Europe (2007)
• Guidelines for the production and nomenclature of transgenic rodents (2007)
• Report: Standardization of enrichment (2006)
• Report: Evaluation of quality systems for animal units (2004)
• Animal identification (2003)
• Recommendations for the accreditation of laboratory animal science education and training (2002)
• Report on acccreditation of LAS education and training (2002)
• Education and training: category B (2000)
• Recommendations for health monitoring of experimental units of calves, sheep and goats (2000)
• Recommendations for education and training: category B (2000)
• Accreditation of laboratory animal diagnostic laboratories (1999)
• Education of specialists in LAS: category D (1999)
• Recommendations for health monitoring of non-human primate colonies (1999)
• Recommendations for health monitoring of cats, dogs and pigs (1998)
• Report: Sanitary aspects of handling non-human primates during transport (1997)
• Standardization of enrichment (1997)
• Recommendations for education and training: categories A and C (1995)
• Report: Pain and distress in laboratory rodents and lagomorphs (1994)
  
  

The guidelines, recommendations and reports are available here. The countries affiliated to FELASA can be visualised on Norecopa's interactive global map of 3R centres and associations.

FELASA: promoting good practice through Laboratory Animals journal (J-P Mocho, 2026)

The History of FELASA 1978-2018 by Jan-Bas Prins. This includes lists of the FELASA congresses (1982-2025), FELASA Presidents and FELASA Award Winners.

15th FELASA Congress, Marseille, 13-16 June 2022
16th FELASA Congress, Athens, 2-5 June 2025
17th FELASA Congress, Cologne, 7-10 June 2027

FELASA 2022: Communication as a driver for better science, transparence, and animal welfare (Franco & Voikar, 2022)