Animal welfare is a central issue when performing animal research. Therefore the principle of the 3Rs has ben developped as a framework: replacement, reduction and refinement. The idea of 'refinement' is to use methods which minimise animal suffering or disturbance. We used, validated and refined the following methods in different projects:
Blood sampling usually causes stress and consequently often leads to unwanted changes in physiology and behaviour. Using blood sucking bugs Dipetalogaster maxima in hollow eggs, we sampled birds without catching them during incubation and repeatedly over time in colony-breeding common terns Sterna hirundo and adjusted the method for the use in bird species with smaller eggs like common swifts Apus apus.
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Blood-sucking bugs as secret research assistants (popular science article)
If only small amounts of DNA are required (e.g. for sexing), a generally easy method to collect samples is via buccal swabs.
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