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

• Council accepted the report of the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee.

• Council approved a motion to change the tenure of the ACE Committee Chair from 3 to 4 years.

• Council approved the creation of a new position"Past Chairperson"on the ACE Committee.

• 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.