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Proceedings of the 4th National Symposium on Biosafety
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
Tom Wolfe, DVM
Director, Institute for Laboratory Animal Research
2102 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20418
202-334-2595You will receive a "Pre-publication Edition" of the guide at this meeting. It was released in the final form on January 2nd, and we have distributed it widely. It uses a different language than you have seen in earlier editions and it takes a bit more careful reading. I would ask you to read it through carefully; let one of the committee members know if there are confusing parts. Tell us or tell me. We are preparing the press copy now and have an opportunity to make editorial corrections to clarify language if it is being misunderstood. Something as simple as the use of the word "and" in a phrase rather than "or" - "must", "should", "shall", "can", "may" - all of these words have been very carefully scrutinized by the editor, the committee, the reviewers, and by staff, but surely somewhere in there we have missed one or more. So, I invite your attention to it.
I also invite your attention to the first line of the introduction. This edition of the guide supports the conviction that all who use and care for laboratory animals have ethical responsibility for their well-being. We could quit at that point, because that is the hallmark of this guide. That's the epitome of performance standards. You do it. You know whether the animal is in a state of well-being, at the maximum state of well-being that you can achieve, given the research environment that that animal is in.
You will find this language conveyed, supported, and restated throughout in everything that the guide says. Read it through. It does take a read-through to get into the mood - the feeling that the committee has put into this edition. I think very strongly that the committee has raised this expectation in every issue. If you raise the expectations that the investigator will become more involved he or she will, through the IACUC and through dialog with, the veterinarian, the technicians, and all who care for animals, asking questions and trying to enhance the welfare of the animals. So before you look in detail at the Table 2.2, be sure you understand the intent of the committee and what it's saying there. The committee does not feel that those tables, for example, were minimal recommendations. The word "minimal" has been dropped. Those recommendations are the absolute best that this committee could come up with. They are not minimal. You might use them as a baseline starting place from which to access whether or not an animal in that environment is suitable, bt only as a starting point. It's your responsibility then, irrespective of what else the guide may say, to make sure that the animal is doing as well as it can.
I look forward to hearing back from you. We have several hundred copies out. AAALAC, OPRR, and ILAR have distributed them, and we're starting to getsome feedback.
I apologize for an obvious omission on my part. Part of the guide does address the topic of this conference, "Occupational Health and Safety", and in that you will find a set of recommendations. I think you will find that those recommendations will look very much like the recommendations that come from another report that is in review from ILAR now, Occupational Health and Safety and the Care and Use of Research Animals. We very much wanted that report to be distributed to you at this meeting. Unfortunately, it has not finished review. So I apologize to you for that, but I do call your attention to the section in the guide that I think is a very succinct summary of what you'll find later.
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Last Modified: 1/2/97
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