Deut Tierarztl Woch
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Deut Tierarztl Woch · Apr 2008
[Inspection of laboratory animal breeding and husbandry/experiments on animals, examples].
In Berlin, the authorization and inspection of experiments on animals and of facilities for laboratory animal breeding and husbandry are carried out by the same authority. According to Section 16 (1) sentence one no. 3 Tierschutzgesetz (German animal protection act), there are presently 1200 procedures registered and 68 facilities approved to breed and keep vertebrates for experiments (according to Section 11 (1) sentence one no. 1 Tierschutzgesetz). In 2006, the use of 300,903 vertebrates was reported. ⋯ Furthermore, the scientists must be more receptive to the animal welfare officers in their role as advisers. Continuous and adequate training is imperative to the goal of maintaining sufficient in-house supervision and to keep the animals from suffering. If in-house supervision works well, the State's role in regulating animal experiments can be reduced.
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Deut Tierarztl Woch · Dec 2007
[Changes in the concentration of noradrenaline and adrenaline before and after castration of piglets with and without isoflurane anesthesia].
Since the amendment of the animal welfare law in Germany in April 2006, castration of piglets without anesthesia is only allowed in the first seven days of life. However, neonates are capable of feeling pain and react more sensitive to pain than adults. Accordingly we expect that castration without anesthesia will be unaccepted in Germany in the future as castration without anesthesia will be forbidden in Switzerland from 2009 on. ⋯ The significant increase of the catecholamines of the non-anesthetized animals can be explained by the stress caused by fixation and/or castration without anesthesia. Because of the anesthesia the catecholamine-concentration was reduced considerably during the fixation and/or castration. The results show that fixation and/or castration under anesthesia causes no stress for the piglets.
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Since the last report there have been major revisions of laws and ordinances. Deliberations on rules of Community law were also continued. On national level, the Act on the Shoeing of Horses amending the Animal Welfare Act and amendments of animal welfare provisions as well as the Deregulation Act were prepared, some of which have meanwhile entered into force. ⋯ There is a discussion on the technical details of the Transport Convention. Since the first animal welfare conference of the International Office of epizootics (OlE) in February 2004 in Paris, two very comprehensive codes on slaughter of animals and on animal transport were adopted. The inclusion of further animal welfare issues into the OIE work programme will be discussed in the next future.
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Deut Tierarztl Woch · Jul 2006
Comparative Study[Pulmonary artery wedge pressure and heart rate measurement during pharmacological stress induction for left cardial function diagnosis in horses with and without heart disease].
In 18 horses, the pulmonary artery wedge pressure and the heart rate were measured during pharmacological stress load. 12 horses were healthy (4 trained, 8 untrained) and 6 horses had a heart disease (3 trained, 3 untrained). Pharmacological stress induction was carried out with the sympathomimetic drug dobutamine at a dosage rate of 7.5 microg/kg/min over 10 minutes of infusion. At the fourth minute, the parasympatholytic drug atropine was administered (5 microg/kg bw), and the heart rate and the pulmonary artery wedge pressure were continuously measured over 26 minutes. ⋯ The correlation between the pulmonary artery wedge pressure and the left atrial size was nearly the same in the healthy horses (r = 0.74) and in the horses with heart diseases (r = 0.76). Regarding the training level, all untrained horses had a significantly higher correlation between the pulmonary artery wedge pressure and the left atrial size (r = 0.87) in comparison to the trained horses (r = 0.74). Particularly in the untrained horses with heart diseases, this correlation was remarcable (r = 0.99).
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Deut Tierarztl Woch · Mar 2005
Comparative Study[The ethics of animal welfare and the ethics of animal protection].
An argumentational analysis of the German legislation for animal welfare suggests that the concept "Ethischer Tierschutz", declared as a state objective in 2002, allows the legislative body greater scope than that utilized so far. The legislator would, in principle, be able to regulate some problem areas which have been repeatedly addressed by the public as well as the ethics. A comparison with Switzerland and the EU-member Austria shows that both countries' animal welfare legislations already reach beyond a strictly suffering-based protection framework by employing additional anthropocentric arguments. The concept "Ethischer Tierschutz" would make this approach likewise feasible in Germany.