Animal Welfare & Ethics:
Our Responsibility
Plasvacc’s directors and employees are wholly committed to ensuring the health and welfare of our donor animals. Plasvacc adheres to a strict set of health standards throughout the entire plasma collection process and the welfare of our donors is never compromised.
As a USDA-licensed commercial producer of blood plasma for veterinary use, our facilities, donors and products are subject to rigorous quality checks, in addition to our own commitment to the health and well-being of our donors.
The care and use of our donor animals is monitored with annual physical inspections and regular reports on donors submitted by Plasvacc veterinary surgeons.
Our canine donors live in a quarantined kennel facility on our Australian property under the care of two veterinary surgeons employed by Plasvacc, with access to another two privately owned veterinary clinics just a 15-minute drive away. Their physical wellbeing and care is extraordinary.
The veterinarians are assisted by a team of trained and qualified kennel attendants who look after our canine donors 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Kennel attendants are formally trained in animal husbandry and welfare, obedience training and basic veterinary monitoring and treatment.
The mental welfare of our canine donors is also extremely important. Kennel enrichment is considered a priority at Plasvacc to create happy donors. We are aware that the kennel environment is a potential psychogenic stressor for some canines and all aspects of kennel and environmental enrichment form a normal part of their husbandry. This is reflected in comments we receive from our Veterinarians about how quiet the kennels are, and that our canine donors do not display abnormal behaviors that are attributable to boring and barren environments. This is despite the fact that most of our canine donors have failed behavioral assessments at the time they are admitted into our facility and thus cannot be rehomed.
Life Enrichment
Social enrichment with group or pair housing and exercising along with regular contact with our kennel attendants provides a constant source of complex mental stimulation, and occupational enrichment with obedience training is performed on a regular basis.
Social enrichment with group or pair housing and exercising along with regular contact with our kennel attendants provides a constant source of complex mental stimulation, and occupational enrichment with obedience training is performed on a regular basis. Physical enrichment to improve the quality and complexity of the canine donors’ living space is achieved with a variety of toys that are rotated regularly to ensure interest. Concrete tunnels provide a safe protected area and offer privacy from other canines. The donors are able to command a better view of their surroundings on raised platforms in their yards, they can choose to be inside under cover or outside in a spacious yard. Sandboxes provided in outdoor areas allow them to engage in normal digging behavior.
Sensory enrichment stimulates their senses – sight, sound and smell. Having visual access to the rest of the kennels is important to these sighthounds and can provide a sense of security. Auditory enrichment with classical music is provided as it may help mitigate some of the stress inherent for many kenneled canines. Wells 2009 showed that olfactory enrichment with placement of lavender-scented cloths has a calming effect, so Plasvacc has implemented this enrichment strategy.
Our canine donors are currently all ex-racing greyhounds that have been given a second chance at life by Plasvacc. The donors are typically 2-3 years of age when they join us. They qualify to enter the kennels after strict immune-hematological and disease testing is performed. They are desexed and started on a preventative medicine and hyperimmunization program.
Plasvacc is affiliated with a not-for-profit charity, named Anubis Retirement Ltd. Once a canine donor officially retires from donating they can either be rehomed (where possible) with a suitable family or they stay on at ‘Anubis Retirement Village’ where they live out the natural course of their lives. Rehoming some of these donors is only possible because of the positive effect Plasvacc staff have had on their temperament during the years that they live with us.
