Mitigating Risk, Facilitating Research

Abstract

The fundamental raison d’etre of the laboratory animal veterinarian, institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC 1 ), IACUC administrator, institutional compliance office/officer, training coordinator, and other related positions and groups at institutions that use animals for research, testing, and teaching is to ensure the humane, responsible, and productive use of animals in those activities. All of these people and groups support both science and animal welfare. The US system of animal welfare oversight has been covered in several review articles in recent years (Garnett 2005; NRC 2003), and all of the authors in this issue of the ILAR Journal allude to or cite key components of the policy and regulatory framework of oversight. Therefore, rather than an exhaustive review, we provide here a brief summary of the relevant documents and oversight bodies. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations (9 CFR), enforced by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Animal Care unit, apply to registered research facilities that use species covered under the act. The Public Health Service (PHS) Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, authorized by the Health Research Extension Act (HREA), is implemented by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW 1 ) and is applicable to all PHS-supported activities involving live vertebrate animals. The PHS Policy includes, by reference, the NRC Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (the Guide; NRC 1996). Eligibility for NIH (and other PHS) grant and contract support requires compliance with the