T hese recommendations are primarily intended to standardize health monitoring programmes and reporting. In this way they may also help to standardize the microbiological quality of animals. However, it is not a requirement of these recommendations that animals tested are free from all of the microorganisms listed.Health monitoring is a complex issue. T herefore, it is recommended that a person with suf®cient understanding of the principles of health monitoring (FELASA Category D, Nevalainen e t a l. 1999 ) be identi®ed as the individual responsible for devising and maintai ning a health monitoring policy for the facility.It should be noted that health monitoring is not con®ned to laboratory reporting. T here should also be engendered a culture of communicat ion between anim al technicians, facility managers, veterinarians and researchers so that observed abnormalities in breeding anim als and experimental data can rapidly be evaluated and appropriate action taken.Animals that are standardized as much as possible are important prerequisites for reproducible anim al experiments.

Monitoring the health of research animals is an essential part of the research process and helps to ensure that experiments yield reliable and reproducible results. The Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) is one organization that accredits and evaluates health monitoring programs and laboratories involved with health monitoring. In this article, the authors (who are members of the FELASA working group Accreditation Board for Health Monitoring) describe the guidelines of the FELASA health monitoring accreditation process. The ultimate goal of this accreditation program is to make health monitoring reports more thorough and reliable, thereby increasing the standardization of health monitoring of laboratory animals.

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