The Three Primary Standards

AAALAC International’s Council on Accreditation uses Three Primary Standards to evaluate the animal care and use programs:  the 8^th Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide); the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching (Ag Guide, 2020); and the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes, Council of Europe (ETS123). The Council on Accreditation has used all three documents for several years and their adoption by AAALAC's governing body as primary standards signifies the importance of these performance-based guidelines in the accreditation process.

You can download copies of the Three Primary Standards at the links below:

• Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide), NRC 2011 (available here)
• Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching (Ag Guide), American Dairy Science Association^®, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Poultry Science Association 2020. 
• ETS 123 (Appendix A*, Appendix B)
  *background information for the species-specific section of Appendix A
  may be found here...

Additional Accreditation Standards

AAALAC International is not a regulatory body and does not make or enforce regulations. Instead, AAALAC relies on what it refers to as the “Three Primary Standards” (above) that are used by the Council on Accreditation to evaluate animal care and use programs. Supplementing these primary standards, and local Legislation/Regulations, are AAALAC “Position Statements,” “Guidance Statements” and “Reference Resources.” Council has also developed a list of answers to “Frequently Asked Questions” to further clarify AAALAC’s expectations. 

Click here for a complete Overview of Accreditation Standards.