The FELASA 2019 congress, for which Allentown was a Gold Sponsor, took place on 10th-13th June in Prague, Czech Republic. Offering a spectacular view of Prague and a large and friendly social space, every participant could enjoy time with the Allentown team, and discover all of our latest innovations: high density NexGen MAX rack, single use caging system, washing cabinet CW-185 new design, intra-cage monitoring InSight system, and the entire housing and transfer collection dedicated to Gnotobiology studies: Sealed Positive Pressure SPP IVC rack, Safety Cabinet SC+ with transfer chamber, DPTE door connection to a flexible film isolator DPT door, and Sani-Rack.
On a scientific side, Allentown contributed to 2 oral scientific sessions, as well as a commercial workshop:
- Quality Management in Sourcing of Ruminants and Pig
- Selected Technical Solutions to Manage Cross-Contamination Risks
- Gnotobiology – Focus on Technology
This last session was divided in 3 parts:
- Impact of technological evolutions on global operational management and sterilization issues, Elodie Pastre (Theraxel) & Patrick Hardy (Allentown)
- Accessing gnotobiotic mouse models: Examples of the centre for Gnotobiology The Institut Pasteur, Marion Bérard (Institut Pasteur)
- Microbiota implantation and monitoring: new challenges, ongoing innovations & evolutions, Sylvie Rabot (INRA)
The presentation aimed at approaching gnotobiology and microbiota-related studies and how they play an increasing and extending role in understanding multiple interactions with mammalian hosts, in many fields such as immunology, degenerative diseases, ageing, neurosciences… solutions were discussed regarding breeding, housing and experimental procedures according to the type study and the microbiota definition, and solutions in sterilization, health monitoring…
Please Find Below Summary of Jp Mocho, Chair of Felasa Scientific Committee, on the 14th European Congress Success:
A SUCCESSFUL 14th FELASA CONGRESS!
The FELASA 2019 congress marked the end of the FELASA 40 years’ celebration. This triennial conference benefited from a record attendance of 2015 participants from 68 countries.
The scientific programme was particularly busy with 534 abstracts split in 238 posters, 70 sessions, 4 severity workshops, 3 key notes, and 13 exhibitors’ workshops. The abstract book is freely available on https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/lana/53/1_suppl. Speakers, poster authors and attendees came in numbers from the largest FELASA member associations: GV-SOLAS (Germany), LASA (UK), AFSTAL (France). Oversea countries like the USA were also strongly represented and we welcomed participants and abstracts from all continents.
Two poster awards were given. The Scientific Committee awarded Royford Mwobobia, Klas Abelson, and Titus Kanui for their poster entitled “The naked mole rat as a model for research – Improving its welfare under captivity”. Following congress participants’ votes, Arthur Humbert, Phoukham Phothirath, Gisele Ferrand, Isabelle Barde, and Xavier Warot were awarded for their poster titled “Health monitoring in a rodent facility: implementation of the Exhaust Air Dust system”.
Feedback from the sessions of the scientific programme were very positive and some successes will hopefully be reproducible at future FELASA conferences. For example, the Tech Day welcomed over 200 attendees for sessions given in English and translated in Czech, German, and French. The six streams on education and training, reproducibility and translation, model management, defining good care, compliance and communication, and severity classification often ran with a full room.
The commercial exhibition was very popular too and allowed over 100 exhibitors to entertain the shrewdness of the congress attendees. FELASA also welcomed other LAS organisations willing to share some space in the poster area to create an association village with AALAS, AFSTAL – FELASA 2022, ANZLAA, EARA, ESLAV, European Commission incl. ETPLAS, EVMS, FGB, International Basel Declaration Society, ICLAS, and LAL. This triggered some discussions between participants who rarely meet in European LAS conferences. Similarly the gala evening surely allowed lots of socializing.
The next FELASA congress will take place in Marseille, France, on 13th-16th June 2022. Visit http://www.felasa2022.eu/ to get the latest information. In the meantime, remember to browse on the FELASA website http://www.felasa.eu/ to follow FELASA’s activities, access latest Working Group recommendations or watch some free webinar recordings.
See you in Marseille!
Dr Jean-Philippe Mocho MRCVS MVDr DVM
FELASA Honorary Secretary