Animal ethics - University of Wollongong

Animal research

Researchers at the University of Wollongong conduct a wide range of projects that may involve animals. These are as diverse as observational studies for wildlife conservation through to research involving laboratory mice and rats to study important human diseases.

All these projects are subject to strict regulations. Under the law, no research involving animals may proceed unless it has been approved in advance the University of Wollongong’s Animal Ethics Committee. Membership of this committee must include veterinarians and people with an interest in animal welfare who are completely independent of the University of Wollongong, along with community members who serve to represent the views of the wider community.

Once research has commenced, it is subject to veterinary oversight by the University of Wollongong’s Animal Welfare Officer and inspections by the Animal Ethics Committee.

The University of Wollongong respects the diversity of views relating to animal research in the broader community and has shown leadership in implementing measures to address common ethical concerns.

The University requires researchers proposing to use animals in research and teaching activities to address the 3R's (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) in all animal research and teaching applications and annual progress reports. The University has previously made funding available to UOW researchers on selected projects to address one or more of the 3Rs via a competitive small grant process and has also received funding from the MAWA Trust for projects that aim to replace the use of animals in medical research with non-animal methods.

The University of Wollongong was one of the first institutions in NSW to make rats and mice that had been used for research or teaching activities available for rehoming. UOW Animal Carers developed a behaviour assessment matrix to assess the suitability of rats and mice for rehoming that has been incorporated into the NSW DPI Research Animal Rehoming Guidelines. UOW partners with the Liberty Foundation Australia for the rehoming of rats and mice. If you are interested in rehoming an ex-research animal, please contact the Liberty Foundation Australia.

For more information about the role of animals in research more generally, we recommend visiting the Speaking of Research website and the Understanding Animal Research Oceania site. For information about the regulatory requirements in Australia and NSW please visit Animal Ethics Infolink (developed by the Animal Research Review Panel and NSW Deptartment of Primary Industries Animal Welfare Branch).

Ethical animal research - CSIRO

In 2023 UOW became one of the inaugural signatories of the Openness Agreement on Animal Research and Teaching in Australia, making a commitment to greater transparency and accountability in the use of animals in research and teaching. the goal of the agreement is to inform the broader community about how and why animals are used in research, to increase public understanding and to respond to welfare concerns. It also provides for great accountability for funding, ensuring ethical and legal controls related to animal care are being followed.

Dr Malcolm France, a veterinarian and Chair of the UOW Animal Research Committee, provides strong support for the Openness Agreement as outlined in his interview with Cosmos magazine in August 2023.

Animal research memorial stone statue with a glimpse of UOW banner In May 2023, former Vice-Chancellor Professor Patricia Davidson and Professor Eileen McLaughlin, Executive Dean, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, unveiled the University of Wollongong's animal memorial statue. The statue was created to acknowledge the role that animals play in research and advancing the health and wellbeing of people and animals worldwide.

The beautiful statue can be viewed in the gardens outside Molecular Horizons, building 42.

If you would like additional general information about research involving animals specifically at UOW, please email us at animalresearch-questions@uow.edu.au. Please note that this email address is only checked intermittently so we might take a few days to get back to you. For researchers with questions about Animal Ethics processes at UOW, please see the relevant boxes below.

For additional information including past animal use numbers and categories of use, please see the additional information below in the Statistics section.

Animal ethics assistance

For animal ethics assistance, please select the relevant box:

Animal research ethics training and development

Animal research ethics forms & policies

Animal research ethics committee information

Profiling research at UOW

Ecological Research Biomedical research

Current fields of research that involve animals to varying degrees at the University of Wollongong include:

- Medical research:
- Cancer therapy (mice and rats)
- Neurological disease (mice and rats)
- Immunology (mice)
- Mental health disease and treatments (mice and rats)
- Effect of radiofrequency exposure on cognition (Rats and Mice)
- Motor neuron disease (mice)
- Wildlife, conservation and other research involving animals:
- Breeding of endangered species (frogs)
- Impact of habitat loss (observational studies of wildlife)
- Animal behaviour (fish in field studies and aquariums)
- Impact of marine parks on biodiversity (field studies)
- Effect of fire on wildlife (observational studies of wildlife)
- Antimicrobial resistance (seabirds)
- Impacts of invasive species on the endangered crayfish.
- Evolutionary biology – Painted Dragons

Procedures that are NOT conducted at the University of Wollongong include the testing of cosmetics on animals (in fact this is illegal in Australia), The forced swim test & forced smoke inhalation tests which have now been banned in NSW, the Draize test (in which potentially irritant compounds are dripped into an animal’s eye – this has been illegal for over 30 years in Australia and medical research involving dogs, cats or monkeys (although very occasionally, privately owned pets may be involved with their owner’s permission in non-invasive studies designed to help improve veterinary treatments).

Before conducting or commencing any research investigation, staff and students of the University are required to submit a research ethics application to the University of Wollongong Animal Ethics Committee and obtain approval to ensure that all statutory requirements are met.

Laboratory mice and rats are housed under conditions that ensure the health and welfare of the animals is maintained at the highest industry standards. At UoW mice and rats are housed in Ventilated HEPA filtered cages. They are provided with enrichment such as bedding material, nesting material, chew blocks, tunnels and shelters and group housed whenever possible.

For more details about our laboratory rodent facility see Animal Facilities case studies.

The University of Wollongong also has an Ecological research facility which has the facilities required for short term housing of marine species, freshwater fish, lizards, frogs, small native mammals and birds. All housing conditions at the ERC must be approved by the AEC and appropriate for the species.

Each facility is staffed by qualified Animal Care Technicians who monitor the care and welfare of the animals held in each facility and provide husbandry support.

The University Animal Welfare Officer/Veterinarian (AWO) provides oversight of the care and use of animals at the University facilities and is available to respond to any concerns about animals held in the facilities or encountered by UOW researchers working in the field. The AWO conducts regular inspections of the facilities and along with the technical officers provides training and competency assessments for researchers working with animals.

Like all institutions conducting research involving animals, UOW is required to submit a report to the government each year which lists the number of animals used or observed in research projects. The graphs below summarise the total number of animals used in projects over recent years. The number used in wildlife and conservation studies includes large numbers of fish, birds and other native and exotic/feral wildlife that are simply observed directly by researchers in the field and/or monitored by cameras without being trapped/handled. Small numbers of wildlife including lizards, snakes, small mammals(eg. gliders, possums, antechinus, native rodents) birds and fish are trapped, measured and released at the capture location with some animals (mainly fish, lizards and frogs) retained in onsite field or campus laboratories for physiology/behavioural studies.

UOW Biomedical Animal Use

Graph for the use of Laboratory Mice, Laboratory Rats, Laboratory Xenopus Frogs, Other biomedical (client owned Dogs and Cats) - Please see table for full explanation

UOW Biomedical Animal Use in numbers

Category	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Laboratory Mice	1416	967	540	852	417	756	585	870
Laboratory Rats	588	565	270	442	114	394	214	51
Laboratory Xenopus Frogs	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	18	36	Nil	Nil
Zebrafish	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	20
Other biomedical (client owned Dogs and Cats)	Nil	Nil	Nil	52	31	Nil	87	165

Category of use biomedical research graph - Please see attached table for explanation in numbers

UOW Conservation and Marine Animal Use

UOW Conservation and Marine Animal Use graph Please see attached table for description

Conservation and Marine Animal Use in numbers

Category	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Wildlife/marine etc	9271	8842	8706	10049	7345	11381	16868*	17394
Wildlife/marine excluding estimates from cameras/scat counts/distant observations							2087	1880

* in 2022 approximately 270 000 grey headed flying foxes were also observed with binoculars. these have not been included in the table above or the graphs below.

Category of Use Conservation/Marine Research

Category of Use Conservation/Marine Research in numbers - for full explanation please see attached table

All research proposals at UOW must address the 3Rs in both the initial application to the AEC and yearly in the annual progress report.

The 3Rs (Replacement with non animal models, Reduction in the number of animals used without increasing the harm to an individual animal, and Refinement of procedures to decrease the impact on animals.) For more information about the 3Rs please visit Animal ethics info link and The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research.

UOW is committed to supporting the 3Rs. In 2018, 2019 and 2022, small grants were made available for researchers looking at methods to refine currently used animal models of human disease. Funding has also allowed us to purchase inanimate models of rats and mice for use in our laboratory animal training program.

We also encourage our researchers to share surplus tissues or carcasses for use in training and teaching programs.

In 2023 the NSW Government announced the Non-Animal Technology Network (Nat-Net) and we look forward to the advances this network makes in reduction and replacement of animal testing in medical research. UOW is a partner institution for the Nat-Net with Professor Gordon Wallace being the key contact at UOW.

RDI contacts:

Rochelle Waren (Animal Ethics Officer) uow-animalethics@uow.edu.au

Sarah Toole (Animal Welfare Officer) sarah_toole@uow.edu.au

University of Wollongong - Animal Ethics Committee

Annual Report to the Institution for 2023

In accordance with clause 2.1.10[i] of the Code, the Summary of the AEC’s report to the institution is presented:

This report has been approved by the full Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) following review at its meeting on 21 March 2024.

The largest proportion of projects underway or concluding in 2023 was in human or animal biology, health or welfare; there were no studies directed towards production of biological products, diagnostic procedures or regulatory product testing.
While a substantial majority of projects (90%) in 2023 were minimally invasive, the remaining 15% met the DPI criteria for ‘high impact’ in terms of animal welfare. This was an increase compared to the previous year.
UOW’s animal memorial was officially unveiled acknowledging the animals used in the past and those in future research.
UOW was one of the inaugural signatories on the ANZCCART openness Agreement on Animal Research and teaching in Australia.
Senior Animal Technician Maria Catacouzinos won Best Animal Technician Presentation at the 2023 ANZLAA conference.
As has been the case for several years, the AEC neither received nor approved applications to conduct projects involving ‘death as an endpoint’ as defined in the DPI procedure categories.
UOW continues to demonstrate a progressive position in relation to industry trends and initiatives such as rehoming of animals, use of inanimate training materials, and public openness in its animal research activities. Refinements to reduce the animal welfare impact of invasive procedures and in vitro testing of hypotheses before moving to in vivo animal trials are also well-established at UOW.
Staff involved in the welfare of animals used in research at UOW received significant recognition during 2023.
The UOW AEC continues to benefit from the participation of specialists in philosophy and statistics – a feature that is uncommon among AECs. The independence of the AEC is strengthened by the fact that on average, nearly two thirds of the members participating in each meeting during 2023 were external to the institution.

Annual Report to the Institution for 2022

In accordance with clause 2.1.10[i] of the Code, the Summary of the AEC’s report to the institution is presented:

This report has been approved by the full Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) following review at its meeting on 30 March 2023.

In addition to presenting a summary of statutory reporting data, this report notes the following outcomes and activities:
As with the previous year, the largest proportion of projects underway or concluding in 2022 were in environmental research; there were no studies directed towards production of biological products, diagnostic procedures or regulatory product testing.
While a substantial majority of projects (93%) in 2022 were minimally invasive, the remaining 7% met the DPI criteria for ‘high impact’ in terms of animal welfare. This was a slight increase compared to the number of high impact projects in the previous year.
As has been the case for several years, the AEC neither received nor approved applications to conduct projects involving ‘death as an endpoint’ as defined in the DPI procedure categories.
UOW continues to demonstrate a progressive position in relation to industry trends and initiatives such as rehoming of animals, use of inanimate training materials, funding for procedures to reduce the need to use animals for research purposes, and public openness in its animal research activities. Refinements to reduce the animal welfare impact of invasive procedures and in vitro testing of hypotheses before moving to in vivo animal trials are also well-established at UOW.
Staff involved in the welfare of animals used in research at UOW received significant recognition during 2022. These included Ms Carlee Mottley who was the recipient of an industry-wide award and was the first animal technician appointed to the NHMRC Animal Welfare Committee, and Dr Sarah Toole who represented UOW at the NSW parliamentary inquiry into animal research and at a government taskforce established in response to the black summer bushfire crisis.
The UOW AEC continues to benefit from the participation of specialists in philosophy and statistics – a feature that is uncommon among AECs. The independence of the AEC is strengthened by the fact that on average, nearly two thirds of the members participating in each meeting during 2022 were external to the institution.

Previous years' summaries

Contact the animal ethics team

(02) 4221 3550 uow-animalethics@uow.edu.au

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