Minimal standards of care and housing for laboratory animals are defined by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the NIH Guide. Institutional policy may, however, impose more stringent criteria.
Good animal care is essential to good science. Animals that are sick, stressed, or housed without appropriate attention to the maintenance of a standard, stable environment cannot be expected to provide accurate reproducible data. Prevention of disease is the primary objective of an animal health maintenance program. The responsible veterinarian should, therefore, have specific training, experience, or certification in laboratory animal science and medicine.
The Animal Welfare Act mandates that the institution is responsible and accountable for animal purchases and annual reporting. Newly acquired animals can introduce disease into established colonies. The first step in the process of disease prevention is therefore the procurement of healthy animals. All animal sources must be approved by the IACUC and ordered through the Animal Facility staff. Special considerations may be made for animals obtained from nature or specialized non-commercial sources. Pet-store animals are generally unacceptable due to their unknown history and the potential for disease transmission. All incoming animals should be inspected on arrival and housed in a quarantine facility or in a room separate from acclimated animals until their health status has been established. Newly arrived animals should be permitted a stabilization period to allow them to physiologically and behaviorally adapt to their new environment before any experimental use is initiated. Studies of several laboratory species have indicated that various physiological parameters can be altered for several days following shipping. Rodents, rabbits, and amphibians should be allowed at least 72 hours after arrival to acclimate prior to any survival surgical procedure.
Some species of animals carry latent or sub clinical infections that can cause serious disease if transmitted to other species. Because of this consideration, physical separation of species is generally recommended to reduce the possibility of disease transmission. Intra-species separation is also advisable if animals are obtained from different vendors, if they differ in microbiological status, or are likely to cause stress in another species.
All laboratory animals must be inspected daily by an individual trained to recognize signs of illness or injury in animals because spontaneous disease or injury is frequently detected in laboratory populations, and because some experimental paradigms could induce pain or distress. A record of the daily feeding and husbandry performed should be kept on site.
Sick or injured animals must receive immediate veterinary attention. Methods of diagnosis, therapy, and disease control should follow current standards of acceptable veterinary practice. If a contagious disease is suspected, appropriate measures must be taken to prevent spread of the infection to healthy animals. Animals that die unexpectedly should be examined to determine the cause of death.
Routine scheduled serological and histopathological monitoring of selected animals in the colony facilitates the early detection of disease, as well as the detection of sub clinical or latent infections that do not produce recognizable clinical signs of illness in animals, but nonetheless can have serious adverse effects on experimental data.