Advisor on Quality Assurance Higher Education Commission (HEC) Professor Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi has said the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) is playing a key role in the development of livestock sector.
He was inaugurating a two-week training course on "Scientific and ethical procedures for laboratory animals" for research scientists, organised by the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the UVAS in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, UK, here on Monday.
Dr Riaz Qureshi said that ethics was a relative term as some people thought keeping animals in zoo was unethical while others say it was not. He also lauded the UVAS for arranging the training course in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, and said the HEC encouraged universities to develop such linkages with international universities and organisations.
UVAS vice-chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz, vice-chancellor of Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood and senior UVAS faculty members were also present. Professor Dr Nawaz said that for quality research, one had to follow the ethical and scientific standards of research. He said that the animals used in laboratories for research/experiments should be kept free of pain, stress, diseases, etc.
He said that the objective of this training was to familiarise the research scientists with the internationally accepted standards and procedures in the conduct of animal research. He said that animal were an important instrument of research around the world. Variable reasons influenced the selection of different species as laboratory animals.
"Sometimes it is the ease of handling and sometimes it is the aptness of a model for a particular study. Most popular are rabbit, guinea pig, mouse, rat, dog, cat, etc," Professor Nawaz added.
Dr Khalid Mehmood said that research ethics and norms had to be observed to get the research findings published and recognised at international level. Dr Sohail Ijaz from the University of Cambridge, who is one of the resource persons, spoke about the modules of the course.