Position statements
AAALAC International uses the revised Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide), NRC, 1996, as the basis for assessing and accrediting animal care and use programs. AAALAC has modified its position statements to reflect changes in the Guide. The following positions will be used by the Council on Accreditation to evaluate and accredit animal care and use programs.
Some statements are paraphrased or excerpted directly from the Guide; others are AAALAC International interpretations of the Guide's intent. The principles of the Guide are outcome-based and include professional judgment and performance standards. If a program deviates from the standards of the Guide, there must be compelling reasons with strong rationales for it to be acceptable.
Laboratory animals
All vertebrate animals used or to be used in research, teaching or testing at accreditable units are to be included and evaluated in relation to the principles set forth in the Guide. This includes traditional laboratory animals, farm animals, wildlife, and aquatic animals.
Adequate veterinary care
Veterinary care is an essential part of an animal care program. Veterinary care is the responsibility of a veterinarian who is certified or has training or experience in laboratory animal science and medicine in the species being held and used.
Some aspects of the veterinary care program can be conducted by qualified personnel other than a veterinarian; however, a mechanism of direct and frequent communication should be adopted so that timely and accurate information on problems in animal health, behavior, and well-being is conveyed to the attending veterinarian/named veterinarian.
The veterinarian should also contribute to the establishment of appropriate policies and procedures for ancillary aspects of veterinary care, such as providing advice on humane animal use in light of scientific requirements; reviewing protocols and proposals with respect to veterinary care, animal husbandry, and animal welfare; monitoring occupational health, hazard containment, and zoonosis control programs; and oversight of animal nutrition, husbandry, and sanitation.
The veterinarian must provide guidance to investigators and all personnel involved in the care and use of animals to ensure appropriate handling, immobilization, sedation, analgesia, anesthesia, and euthanasia. The attending veterinarian/named veterinarian must provide direction in the management of protocol-associated disease, disability, or other sequelae; as well as oversight of surgery and postsurgical care.
Occupational health & safety program
An occupational health and safety program must be part of the overall animal care and use program. The basic elements of a program include hazard identification and risk assessment, personnel training and protection, written procedures and policies regarding hazard use and monitoring, and medical evaluation and preventive medicine.
The extent and level of participation of personnel in the program should be based on the hazards posed by the animals and materials used; on the exposure intensity, duration, and frequency; on the susceptibility of the personnel; and on the history of occupational illness and injury in the particular workplace. A health history evaluation is advisable before work assignment to assess potential risks for individual employees. Periodic medical evaluations and appropriate immunization schedules are advisable for some risk categories. Immunization of animal care personnel against tetanus is important.
In accordance with the Guide, assurance must be provided by an organization that all personnel at risk are appropriately considered under the occupational health and safety program.
Multiple major surgical procedures
Multiple major survival surgical procedures on a single animal are strongly discouraged. However, under certain circumstances they may be permitted when they are scientifically justified by the user and with the approval of the Animal Care and Use Committee. Multiple survival surgical procedures may be justified when they are related components of a research project and are deemed essential. Cost savings alone is not an adequate reason for performing multiple survival surgical procedures.
Survival surgery facilities
The AAALAC International position statement pertaining to survival surgical facilities has been withdrawn due to the detailed information provided in the Guide.
Farm Animals
AAALAC International uses the current edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) (NRC 1996) as its primary standard for evaluating animal care facilities and programs. The full range of programmatic criteria outlined in Sections I-III of the Guide are entirely applicable to farm animals, and in accredited facilities, the use of farm animals in research should be subject to the same general ethical considerations as the use of other animals in research.
However, uses of farm animals are often separated into biomedical uses and agricultural uses, and different criteria for evaluating standards of housing and care for animals of the same species may be appropriate. Decisions on categorizing research uses of farm animals and defining standards for their care and use should be based on user goals, protocols, and concern for animal well-being and should be made by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
For animals in an agricultural setting, AAALAC International takes the position that, in accredited facilities, the housing and care for farm animals should meet the standards that prevail on a high-quality, well-managed farm. The Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Agricultural Research and Teaching (FASS 1999) is recognized by AAALAC International as a reference resource for individual farm animal species.
Regardless of an investigator's research objectives or funding source, institutions are expected to provide oversight of all research animals and ensure that their pain and distress is minimized.
Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1, CHV1 (Herpesvirus-B)
In addition to using the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide), NRC 1996, as its primary document, AAALAC International also uses “Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Research Animals”, NRC 1997; "Recommendations for Prevention of and Therapy for Exposure to B Virus (Cercopithecine Herpesvirus 1)," Cohen, et. al. (2002), Clinical Infectious Diseases 35:1191-1203; and the CDC/NIH “Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories”, 5th Edition (2007) as resources for assessing the appropriateness of measures to protect personnel and prevent transmission of CHV1.
As recommended in the designated references above, all macaques should be presumed to be harboring CHV1 and handled accordingly. Each AAALAC International accredited institution housing macaques, or utilizing tissues or body fluids collected from macaques, must have a protection and prevention program for CHV1 as a part of its occupational health and safety program.
The basic elements of the program include standard operating procedures and training for handling macaques and their tissues and dealing with potential exposures; risk assessment and education of all personnel having potential contact with macaques; the presence of supplies for immediate and appropriate patient first aid and animal specimen collection; maintenance of a bite, scratch, and incident log; the required use of appropriate protective equipment, including that necessary for hand and arm as well as for eye and mucous membrane protection; and access to occupational health and safety staff and medical care staff knowledgeable of both exposure risk and acute disease.
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