Aalborg opens new barn for animal research

A new, larger animal research barn has opened near Aalborg’s new university hospital, where animals will be used to train surgeons and test medicines and treatments, DR reports.

The facility’s laboratory director, Professor Benedict Kjærgaard, says the animals are not ill or suffering and do not feel discomfort. Pigs, sheep and rabbits are among those kept at the barn.

Four pigs were taken to the hospital for training on the day DR visited. Doctors from the Armed Forces and nurses were due to practise surgical procedures on them. Kjærgaard said the pigs were sedated before being moved to an operating room, where they would be placed under deeper anaesthesia. The training involves making a number of injuries while the pigs are fully anaesthetised, and they are euthanised at the end.

Asked whether it was unfair to subject healthy animals to the procedures, Kjærgaard said captivity was difficult for animals but argued that the pigs at the facility had better conditions than those on a pig farm. He said they remained fully anaesthetised during operations and that two veterinarians were always present. The Armed Forces also practise on animals to prepare to help people in the event of war, he said.

The pigs have toys and dry bedding. The old facility was in a basement beneath Aalborg’s former university hospital, where conditions were cramped, there was no daylight and the air quality was poor, Kjærgaard said.

The animals are also used in research to improve blood-glucose monitoring devices for people with diabetes and to help detect blood clots in the eyes sooner. The new barn has operating rooms for smaller animal trials and is larger than the previous facility.

Søren Pihlkjær Hjortshøj, medical director of the North Denmark Region, said the improved facilities would allow more scientific trials and better surgical training, ultimately producing more skilled surgeons and researchers.