Score sheets for the monitoring of transgenic mice

The widespread use of transgenic animals in research, and especially,for ge nerating models of human disease, has given rise to calls for a careful doc umentation of transgenic strains with particular emphasis on characterizing phenotypes and their animal welfare aspects. Based upon several published suggestions for general health monitoring of laboratory animals and upon a questionnaire we developed for the characterization of transgenic strains, score sheets for litter-wise and individual data collection Mere tested in a pilot study. The documentation concept and some of the most important pap parameters are presented and discussed with respect to their feasibility a nd usefulness. The use of score sheets can help in determining the applicat ion of humane end points at the individual level, phenotype characterizatio n and assessment of animal welfare for the whole strain, and the developmen t of better breeding strategies - apart from being of direct scientific int erest. We suggest that these score sheets, available via the Internet at: w ww.bzl.unizh.ch/de/database/formtransg/index2.html, should be applied for r outine and comprehensive phenotype characterizations of transgenic mouse st rains used and kept for animal experimentation.