4.3. Animals

The animal tests of this experimental study were performed in the Laboratory Animal Centre, Department of Experimental Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, during 1994–1998. The animals used in the experiments were young 22–35 kg farm pigs, New Zealand White rabbits and farm goats, which were treated in conformity with the Animal Welfare Act and the recommendations of the NIH-PHS Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publication No.86.23, revised 1985). Official approval for the tests was obtained from the Social and Health Section of the Provincial Government of Oulu, and the tests were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Oulu. Four experiments were carried out on rabbits, 54 experiments on pigs, and three on goats. The pigs and goats were housed each in a separate pen in a room including 6 pens at 20°C temperature. The rabbits were housed each in a separate isolated cage at 20 °C. The excretions of the test animals during the housing were isolated. The rabbits were fed pellets (K1^®, Lactamin, Sweden) and the pigs animal feed (Sian herkku^®, Rehu Raisio, Finland), and tap water was freely available to both. The total number of animals used in this study is presented in Table 3.