ANIMAL SPECIES FOR EXPERIMENTAL PURPOSES

adopted the following guideline to clarify the responsibilities of the institution, the IACUC, the Attending Veterinarian, and research personnel to outline the minimally acceptable standards for physical restraint of laboratory animal species for experimental purposes. Definitions: Physical Restraint is the use of manual or mechanical means to limit some or all of an animal’s normal movement for the purpose of examination, collection of samples, drug administration, therapy, or experimental manipulation (1). Brief physical restraint of agricultural animals for examination, collection of samples, and a variety of other experimental and clinical manipulations can be accomplished manually or with devices such as stocks, head gates, stanchions, or squeeze chutes (2). If routine restraint does not cause distress or discomfort to the animal, a detailed description is NOT required in the IACUC protocol. Prolonged Restraint is defined as physical restraint of a conscious animal lasting longer than 30 minutes. Prolonged restraint, including chairing of non-human primates, should be avoided unless it is essential for achieving research objectives and is specifically approved by the IACUC (3)