f6098d8b__and_Use_of_Laboratory_Animals__Comments
[ID] 40 [Entry Date] 03/15/2011 at 03:23:27 PM [Affiliation] Self [Organization Name] University of Maryland [Organization City and State] Baltimore, Maryland [Comments] 
Comment 1: I request that you DO NOT implement the recently prepared 8th Edition of the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals". In my opinion as a relatively senior biomedical researcher, there are no important deficiencies in the currently used 7th Edition of the Guide. Its continued use fully supports and prioritizes animal welfare, is based upon "best practices", and thus facilitates humane, high-quality biomedical research. The proposed changes to the Guide in the 8th Edition are not supported by any credible scientific data. They are very unlikely to improve the scientific quality of the research, or improve animal welfare. As such the very expensive and complicated proposed changes would impose a large and wholely unjustifiable fiscal and logistical burden on the national research enterprise, with no expected "return on investment". Well intentioned, but VERY BAD POLICY. Comment 2: It is wholely unrealistic to expect the entire research enterprise of the United States to re-tool completely in one year!
Listing of Public Comments on Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals