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2003 Animal Care and Experimentation Committee Report
The Animal Care and Experimentation Committee (ACEC) is
charged with overseeing all issues related to the procurement, use, and care
of animals for research and teaching and with advising the APS Council of
actions to be taken or programs to be developed. The ACEC has been
particularly busy the past year dealing with issues related to the use of
animals in medical and veterinary education. The committee has also
developed new plans and maintained ongoing programs that support and defend
the use of animals in physiology research and contribute to the APS
Strategic Plan. An important goal of the Strategic Plan is to develop a
dynamic advocacy program with strong member involvement to educate and
inform the public, the government, and other key audiences about the
importance of physiology and the critical role of animal research.
The most important issue addressed by the Committee
this past year was the use of animals in medical and veterinary education.
The use of dogs in basic science laboratory exercises at the UCSD School of
Medicine was criticized earlier this year by animal rights groups such as
the Physicians’ Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and in editorials
in the San Diego Union-Tribune. In response, APS published an article in the
op-ed pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune (“UCSD Dog Labs Do Have Value”).
This commentary, authored by APS President Barbara Horwitz, refuted
arguments by animal rights groups such as the PCRM, who claim that the use
of dogs and other animals in medical school teaching labs are obsolete
exercises that ought to be eliminated. As a result of this and other recent
incidents involving challenges to the use of animals in education, ACEC will
begin groundwork this year on the development of guidelines for the use of
animals in teaching. With approval from APS Council, this new APS Policy
would provide schools and the public with the Society’s perspective as to
how such decisions should be made regarding the use of animals in education.
On the regulatory front, the USDA issued a proposal
this year that would require maintenance of expanded animal health records
under the Animal Welfare Act. The ACEC and APS took a leadership role in
response by sending comments to the USDA, posting a Regulatory Action Alert
on the Legislative Action Center on the APS Website, and working with
numerous other organizations to develop their comments and mobilize their
members. The APS letter was written up in a June 5, 2003 article in the
Washington Fax. It is extremely important that the USDA receive comments
from informed individual citizens (i.e., members of APS) when such issues
arise to counteract the well-developed input from the animal rights
community. Thus, the ACEC encourages all APS members to become familiar with
the Legislative Action Center on the APS Website, which greatly facilitates
the ability of members to be heard in Washington.
A continuing success again organized by ACEC this year
was the IACUC training program held at EB 2003 in San Diego, CA. This
four-hour symposium was open to all EB attendees, and was entitled “IACUC
101 For Scientists.” It was similar to the highly successful APS Public
Affairs Symposium held last year at EB 2002. This year’s symposium was
underwritten by APS as well as ASPET, AAI, ASNS, AAA, FASEB, and the NIH
Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW). The goal of this course was to
provide scientists with focused training to improve their performance on and
interaction with IACUCs. The symposium was modeled after the “IACUC 101”
program developed by a group of IACUC administrators, and included
presentations by APS Councillor J.R. Haywood and ACEC Chairman John N.
Stallone. Representatives from AAALAC, USDA, and NIH/OLAW again answered
questions after each presentation. Comments received from oversight agency
representatives and the audience again uniformly described the symposium as
highly successful in elucidating the operation of the IACUC as well as the
expectations of the regulatory agencies. The opportunity for direct
interactions between investigators and regulatory representatives was also
deemed highly valuable. Due to the continued success of this program, a
similar symposium will be offered at EB 2004 in Washington, D.C.
The ACEC is continuing the development of IACUC
guidelines for the assessment of pain and distress in animal models of
exercise physiology. The level of awareness regarding these issues in the
research community has gradually increased during the past 15 years as the
IACUC protocol approval process has evolved. It is appropriate for the APS
to provide guidance that will help IACUCs fulfill their oversight
responsibility. At the moment there is relatively little documentation
available to help IACUCs make determinations about animal models in certain
areas of physiology. Physiologists need to be involved in developing that
guidance as a way to avoid excessive regulation as well as identify
effective and humane animal research models. Thus, upon the completion of
this first resource, the ACEC intends to develop additional guidelines in
other areas of physiology.
In the coming year, the ACEC will continue to work on
ongoing concerns related to the use of animals in research. The committee
will also work on new projects, including the development of guidelines for
the use of animals in education, strengthening APS collaborations with state
societies for biomedical research to enhance the society’s effectiveness
with congressional advocacy and public outreach, and counteracting the
growing efforts of animal activists groups to undermine public support for
health charities that fund animal research.
The ACEC again strongly urges APS members to become
involved individually by expressing their support for the use of animals in
research and teaching and their opposition to excessive regulatory burden,
to their state and national government leaders. The use of the APS
“Legislative Action Center” in the Public Affairs pages of the APS website
will greatly facilitate this process by enabling APS members to generate
letters to their Senators and Representatives using the “Legislative Hot
Zone” feature. It is crucial that individual members join with professional
societies such as APS in making their voices heard if we are to preserve our
privilege to use animals in research and teaching.
John N. Stallone, Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the report
of the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee.
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Council approved a motion to
change the tenure of the ACE Committee Chair from 3 to 4 years.
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Council approved the
creation of a new position—Past Chairperson—on the ACE Committee.
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Council approved a motion to
charge the ACE Committee with assessing all existing materials and data for
the use of animals in medical/veterinary education and work with the
Education Committee to develop a white paper.
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