Health-promoting factors and animal welfare.

The notion of "health" as the absence of disease has been replaced by a more holistic view based on the concept of "total wellbeing" and its interrelated physiological, psychological, and social components. This approach has radically changed biomedical research, both in terms of experimental methodology and in addressing ethical issues such as animal welfare. The present work focuses on the entire range of factors that can affect the wellbeing of experimental animals, including the physical, social, and psychological conditions of the housing environment, and the animal's behavioural and biological reaction to this environment.