Wildlife research - quality control in uncontrollable populations
Kathrine A. Ryeng & Stig Larsen
Departments of Arctic Veterinary Medicine, and 1Large Animal Clinical Sciences, The Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Tromsø and 1Oslo, Norway
In wildlife research, nondomestic animal species are studied for biomedical purposes in the field, but also in the laboratory. Wildlife subjects may differ substantially from the more traditional laboratory animals, particularly in terms of stress reactions in the contact with humans, and to confinement. One problem with laboratory studies, specially related to wildlife biomedical research, is the implication and generalization to real life. Nevertheless, the same rules within laboratory animal science apply for studies of such animals as do studies of more common laboratory animals; studies are to be both scientifically and legally approved, and ethically acceptable. In wildlife medicine, the possibilities to use controlled clinical trials in the laboratory are limited. Such studies must be performed on captive members of the species or population. In nondomestic species, the number of animals available for such studies is often limited. However, the laboratory enables the researcher to control different factors that may influence on the study results - providing reliable results. For animal welfare and economic reasons, there is a need for new trial designs to ensure reliable results with a limited number of experimental animals in addition to solving the problem of generalization to real life. This presentation addresses these topics and presents an approach for balancing quality requirements, meeting the needs of the research community and protecting wildlife subjects.
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