Description of animal research in scientific publications

OLAW provides information guidance for the description of animal research in scientific publications - http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13241

Revised NIH Guidelines for Breeding of Transgenic Rodents

From the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities (OBA) : http://oba.od.nih.gov/oba/index.html

NIH Guidelines Revised to Exempt Most Experiments Involving the Breeding of Transgenic Rodents Housed Under BL1 Conditions - Under the revisions to the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules effective January 19, the breeding of transgenic rodents that may be housed under BL1 containment conditions is exempt from the NIH Guidelines with the exception of:

Breeding experiments involving transgenic rodents that contain more than 50 percent of the genome of an exogenous eukaryotic virus from a single family, in order to prevent inadvertent reconstitution of an exogenous virus in the resultant transgenic rodent; and

Breeding experiments in which the transgenic rodent's transgene is under the control of a gammaretroviral long terminal repeat (LTR), in order to address the small risk of recombination with endogenous retroviruses which could potentially result in mobilization of the transgene via a replication-competent mouse retrovirus.

The above two types of experiments must still be registered with, and eventually approved by, an IBC under Section III-E of the NIH Guidelines.

A full description of these changes can be found in the January 19, 2011 Federal Register ( 76 FR 3150 )

Final version of the updated Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals now available

It's here! The Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) has announced the publication of the final version of the 8th Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. This is the primary reference used by institutions who are engaged in the humane treatment of animals in research, testing, and teaching. The 2010 edition replaces the Guide, which was last updated in 1996, and includes recently published data, scientific principles, and expert opinion to recommend practices for responsible laboratory animal use.

Go to http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12910 to view and/or purchase a copy.

Grant related Vertebrate Animal Section (VAS) information

The NIH has just published further clarification on how the Vertebrate Animal Section (VAS) of applications for grants and cooperative agreements is evaluated as part of the peer review process and is considered as part of the overall scoring. An important detail to consider when designing and writing proposals for funding. See http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-027.html for more information.

Comparison table for the 1996 vs. 2010 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

THe American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) has created a comparison table for the 1996 vs. 2010 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. This compares text differences, section by section, between the 1996 and 2010 editions.

http://www.aalas.org/bookstore/downloads.aspx (go to Other downloads section)

PubMed® Advanced Search Page Modified

As reported on the Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC)website (http://weblogs.nal.usda.gov/awic/archives/007674.html), the PubMed Search Builder section of the Advanced Search page will soon be modified to provide users with a more cohesive method to build searches. This will be very useful to animal researchers when creating protocol application and addressing the 3 R's. See: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj10/mj10_pm_adv_search_page.html

New Resource for Recognizing and Alleviating Pain in Animals

A new online resource available from the National Academy of Sciences to help those who care for and use laboratory animals, farm animals, and pets to prevent, recognize, and alleviate pain in different types of animals is available at http://nas.edu/pain.