Regulatory Issues Surrounding the Use of Companion Animals in Clinical Investigations, Trials, and Studies

Laboratory animal veterinarians sometimes encounter ani-mals with rare conditions and may subsequently become involved in the performance of related animal research out-side the laboratory, in homes, in veterinary clinics, or in universities to which owners have donated their animals for study. Similarly, veterinarians may monitor animal compan-ion vaccination studies, performed to optimize preventive health care or minimize physiological variability and re-search confounders associated with a preventive medicine program for dogs and cats utilized for research procedures. These nontraditional uses of dogs, cats, and other compan-ion animals in research have spurred the establishment of regulations to ensure that the animals benefit from clinical veterinary products and techniques. Included and describe