f6098d8b__and_Use_of_Laboratory_Animals__Comments
[ID] 430 [Entry Date] 04/22/2011 at 02:34:07 PM [Affiliation] Self [Comments] 
Comment 1: My vote is for OLAW to retain the 1996 Guide as PHS policy. I am a basic research scientist who studies the behavior of rats in laboratory conditions. My research has been continuously funded by NIH and/or NSF from 1957-2010. I have been a member of our University's IACUC committee, editor or consulting editor of journals with articles on animal behavior, and served as a member of several grant review committees of NIH and NSF related to animal behavior. My concern is that I knew nothing about the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals until today when a colleague asked me to look at it on Friday afternoon, and comment on it by one minute before midnight on Sunday. I was struck by the enormity of the task--this is a large revision with many apparently small modifications with large potential ramifications. Every semester I teach an advanced undergraduate research course on the behavior of rats, and I currently have three other IACUC protocols. I interact with veterinarians, animal caretakers, administrators responsible for animals, and animal researchers. If I did not know about the plan to adopt these changes, I assume that many others did not know either. This could be a serious problem. The new Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals should be used as a "Guide" for the next four years. We should have real experience in these guidelines before the words are given the status of rules.
Listing of Public Comments on Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals