title: FELASA guidelines for the accreditation of health monitoring programs and testing laboratories involved in health monitoring.
abstract: Monitoring the health of research animals is an essential part of the research process and helps to ensure that experiments yield reliable and reproducible results. The Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) is one organization that accredits and evaluates health monitoring programs and laboratories involved with health monitoring. In this article, the authors (who are members of the FELASA working group Accreditation Board for Health Monitoring) describe the guidelines of the FELASA health monitoring accreditation process. The ultimate goal of this accreditation program is to make health monitoring reports more thorough and reliable, thereby increasing the standardization of health monitoring of laboratory animals.
authors.affiliation: German Society for Laboratory Animal Science, Germany. w.nicklas@dkfz-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nicklas
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deeny
authors.forename: Piet
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Diercks
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gobbi
authors.forename: Brunhilde
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Illgen-Wilcke
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seidelin
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D000827:Animal Welfare / Q000592:standards*; D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory / Q000502:physiology*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005060:Europe; D006304:Health Status; D007756:Laboratory Animal Science / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000592:standards*