The theoretical part expands the teaching content described in Article 24 and provides knowledge of the following aspects:

a.

animal welfare regulations applicable to animal experiments and laboratory animals;

b.

national regulations concerning the registration of medicinal products, biological agents and chemicals, and the principles of corresponding international agreements;

c.

research in and analysis of scientific publications with respect to planning experiments and reviewing possible alternative methods, knowledge of the major sources regarding alternative methods;

d.

biometrics and use of statistical methods to plan experiments and analyse and interpret results;

e.

selection of suitable animal species, strains and lines depending on the experimental design;

f.

pain assessment and recording of constraints;

g.

ways of reducing the constraints on laboratory animals, particularly ways of administering analgesics and applying withdrawal criteria;

h.

principles of good laboratory practice;

i.

prevention and recognition of diseases, influence of infectious diseases or drug administration on the experimental results;

j.

gnotobiology;

k.

procedure, stages and possible complications during and after anaesthesia, including the measures necessary to rectify them; and

l.

pharmacological properties of the most common anaesthetic and analgesic agents, their selection in view of the animal species, nature of the intervention and experimental design and species-specific reactions to anaesthetics.