FELASA recommendations for the health monitoring of breeding colonies and experimental units of cats, dogs and pigs. Report of the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) Working Group on Animal Health.

The health of an animal is always at risk from a variety of infections. Infections in animals, whether clinically manifest or subclinical may, when the animals are used in biomedical research, produce effects that change the outcome of the experiments undertaken. Depending upon the specific infection a variety of biological parameters may be affected such as behaviour, growth rate, relative organ weights, immune response, tumour development etc. Subclinical infections can also lead to contamination of