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Guide to the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, 8th Edition

A respected resource for decades, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals has been updated by a committee of experts, taking into consideration input from the scientific and laboratory animal communities and the public at large. The...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: National Research Council. 2011. Guide to the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, 8th Edition. The National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 246 pp.

Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals

Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals, the second of two reports revising the 1992 publication Recognition and Alleviation of Pain and Distress in Laboratory Animals from the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR), focuses on pain experienced by...

Year Published: 2009Topics: Humane Endpoint, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: National Research Council. 2009. Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals. The National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 198 pp.

Postapproval monitoring practices at biomedical research facilities

Federal regulations and policies require institutions to establish procedures for ongoing IACUC oversight of approved animal care and use program activities including animal procedures. To fulfill these requirements, research institutions implement postapproval monitoring (PAM) programs designed to assure compliance in...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Davis, J. N., Greer, W., Banks, R. E. et al. 2019. Postapproval monitoring practices at biomedical research facilities. JAALAS 58(4), 469-474.

Compassion fatigue, euthanasia stress, and their management in laboratory animal research

This review is designed to assist both individuals and organizations involved in animal-based research to understand and appreciate the importance and potential risks of compassion fatigue and euthanasia stress. We reviewed current literature regarding compassion fatigue and euthanasia stress as...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Newsome, J. T., Clemmons, E. A., Fitzhugh, D. C. et al. 2019. Compassion fatigue, euthanasia stress, and their management in laboratory animal research. JAALAS 58(3), 289-292.

The Animal Welfare Act and the conduct and publishing of wildlife research in the United States

In the US, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and its enabling regulations (AWAR) cover all warm-blooded animals used for research, testing, experimentation, or exhibition. The only exceptions, made in the enabling regulations, are for two genera of rodents and for...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Mulcahy, D. M. 2017. The Animal Welfare Act and the conduct and publishing of wildlife research in the United States. ILAR Journal 58(3), 371-378.

Disaster planning for animals in hazardous agent containment units

Disaster response planning for laboratory animal facilities is a time- and personnel-intensive undertaking. This article outlines numerous considerations in formulating a plan for disaster response in a high containment animal unit. The planning process is discussed around a set of...

Year Published: 2018Topics: EuthanasiaAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Roble, G., Pullium, J., Hester, T. et al. 2018. Disaster planning for animals in hazardous agent containment units. ILAR Journal 59(2), 195–202.

The interplay of ethics, animal welfare, and IACUC oversight on the reproducibility of animal studies

Reproducibility in animal studies has been defined as the ability of a result to be replicated through independent experiments within the same or among different laboratories. Over the past few years, much has been written and said about the lack...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Pritt, S. L., Hammer, R. E. 2017. The interplay of ethics, animal welfare, and IACUC oversight on the reproducibility of animal studies. Comparative Medicine 67(2), 101–105.

To treat or not to treat: The effects of pain on experimental parameters

A common dilemma faced by all animal bioethics committees arises when exceptions are proposed to the use of analgesics in painful procedures. The committee and researcher must weigh the possible confounding effects of including additional drugs (analgesics) in their treatment...

Year Published: 2017Topics: AnalgesiaAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Peterson, N. C., Nunamaker, E. A., Turner, P. V. 2017. To treat or not to treat: The effects of pain on experimental parameters. Comparative Medicine 67(6), 469–482.

Play and optimal welfare: Does play indicate the presence of positive affective states?

Play is commonly used to assess affective states in both humans and non-human animals. Play appears to be most common when animals are well-fed and not under any direct threats to fitness. Could play and playfulness therefore indicate pre-existing positive...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Ahloy-Dallaire, J., Espinosa, J., Mason, G. 2018. Play and optimal welfare: Does play indicate the presence of positive affective states? Behavioural Processes 156, 3-15.

Sources of maladaptive behavior in ‘normal’ organisms

A basic assumption of most researchers is that behavior is generally functional, and indeed, in most instances the function is obvious. But in a number of cases, some behaviors of neurophysiologically ‘normal' organisms appear to be maladaptive. Considerable research has...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Abnormal/Problematic BehaviorAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Miller, R. R., Polack, C. W. 2018. Sources of maladaptive behavior in ‘normal' organisms. Behavioural Processes 154, 4-12.