Please help us congratulate Penny Reynolds, Ph.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology, for winning the 2021 UK Animals in Science Education Trust 3Rs Prize for her presentation, titled “Non-aversive handling and mouse colony breeding productivity: Welfare improves, costs decline.” Reynolds gave the presentation at the UK Laboratory Animal Science Association meetings held Nov. 16-18 and 23-25.
Reynolds shares the prize with collaborators Margaret Hull, D.V.M., of UF Animal Care Services, and Elizabeth Nunamaker, D.V.M., formerly of UF Animal Care Services and currently director of global animal welfare & training at Charles River Laboratories.
The prize is awarded for outstanding research used to increase awareness and advance implementation of the 3Rs in the larger scientific research community. The 3Rs are the principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement that are used to guide the ethical care and use of laboratory animals.
The adjudication committee signaled out for special mention the strategic plan by which nonaversive handling was introduced to UF as an institutional standard of care. It also highlighted the positive effects on the welfare of laboratory mice, which a formal randomized controlled trial demonstrated.
Congratulations, Dr. Reynolds!