Course on General Primate Biology

for Animal Caretakers and Technical Personnel

4th/5th of June 2014

at Public Health England (PHE)
Porton Down, UK

Dear Colleagues,

All personnel working within primate research should have a good understanding of primate biology, to ensure that the animals receive adequate care and welfare.  In addition it is essential to have good background knowledge of the science that is undertaken using non human primates and of the technologies that can be applied to enhance the clinical relevance of such work.

Within EUPRIM-Net we offer a course especially for animal caretakers and technical personnel, because we know you are the people that have daily and direct contact with the animals and as such you have a vital role to play in the quality of scientific research.
This course will be held at Public Health England, Porton Down where, together with our colleagues at Dstl we have considerable expertise in working with infectious diseases at high levels of biological containment.  During the course we will demonstrate how we address the problems of working with dangerous pathogens but will also show you how we can use advanced technologies such as remote telemetry and medical imaging to refine our experiments and gain the most data possible from each experiment. 

Our colleagues at the MRC Centre for Macaques will also discuss their work within the CFM colony and a leading neuroscientist will present on the use of brain scanning in this field of research.

As we have several breeding colonies on site we will discuss with you the benefits of conducting research within the colony environment and of taking every opportunity to condition animals by well structured early interaction. Other topics will include the use of pain relief, environmental enrichment, managing primate aggression, selecting the right primate species for research, oral hygiene and dentistry, and an update by a member of the FELASA working group on primate health screening. With the advent of the new EU Directive retrospective assessment of welfare is now a requirement and we will demonstrate a simple system for assessing and quantifying the cumulative experience of animals during their lifetime.

Another session included on the course is a seminar on how to engage with the public regarding your work. We all do an important job, but nevertheless there are some situations, when we do not like to talk about our employment and animal testing. Such moments are normal, but can be difficult to deal with so we would like to provide strategies and advice on how to deal with these situations.

We have compiled a two-day course which will be held on 4th and 5th June at the Public Health England, Porton Down. It would be great to welcome you there!

The deadline for registration is the 26th of May.

-----------------------------------

More details:

course programme and registration form

Fees:
365 GBP for employees of private agencies
93 GBP for employees of public agencies

Venue
Public Health England (PHE)
Porton Down
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP4 0JQ
UNITED KINGDOM

Travel and Accommodation
Participants are responsible for organizing their own travel and accommodation and for paying their expenses. For more information about travel and the city of Salisbury, please refer to the attached links below.

Porton Down is situated in a quiet rural location. We strongly recommend that you travel here by hire car if possible. If you are unable to travel by car local buses are run by Wiltshire & Dorset buses, please click here for timetable
http://www.wdbus.co.uk A.pdf /uploads/69_69

Taxis
City cabs 01722 423000
Value taxis 01722 505050
Prices will vary but will be in the region of £16.00 - £20.00 each way

For more information on Salisbury and the surrounding area please click on hyperlink below
http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/site/where-to-stay

Hotels
The closest hotel to Porton Down is the Porton Hotel, however this hotel has very basic amenities and only a small number of rooms are available. Tel: 01980 610203

For hotels in Salisbury search here http://www.booking.com/Salisbury-Hotels
or consult the list provided (list of hotels).

For places to eat please click here http://www.salisburyrestaurants.co.uk/

If your are prevented for any reason, please inform us as soon as possilbe to make the place available for other interested parties.