Guidelines for education of specialists in LAS: category D

FELASA defines category D as laboratory higher management and specialization. The European Directive and The European Convention legislation refer to a `specialist' as a veterinary surgeon or other competent person, but fail to define who the other competent person could be. Articles 5, 9 and 16 of both the Convention and the Directive carry a reference to the competent person. In Article 9 the wording `veterinarian or other competent person' is shown to be someone who has responsibilities in relation to the assessment of pain and distress. In addition, the Explanatory Report of the Convention, Article 20 suggests that veterinarians should also be managers as well as welfarists and clinicians (CE 1986, Official J EC 1986, EC 1992, CE 1993). The working group reports guidelines for the education of specialists in labaratory animal science.