Laboratory Animal Medicine

It is necessary to control laboratory animals with profound knowledge of veterinary medicine for the animal welfare and reliable research results. The laboratory animals should be treated with 3R's spirit of Russell's (Reduction in the numbers of animals used, Replacement with non-animal techniques and Refinement of techniques). We try to produce new alternatives to animal experiment. Our laboratory has two research issues. One is diagnosis of spontaneous and induced diseases of various animals such as rodents, rabbits, companion birds, fishes, beagle dogs, primates. The other is development of new animal model for human and animal diseases. Recently, we establish AHR transgenic zebrafish responding toxic chemicals. We evaluate the pathogenesis of spontaneous diseases and developed animal model by histological, immunohistochemical, electronmicroscopical and molecular biological techniques.