Just to make it easy for you
Pages 1--6 from Policy #3 Veterinary Care
Policies Veterinary Care Animal Care Resource Guide
Issue Date: January 14, 2000
AC 3.1
Subject: Veterinary Care
Expired Medical Materials
Pharmaceutical-Grade Compounds in Research
Surgery
Pre-and Post-Procedural Care
Program of Veterinary Care
Health Records
Euthanasia
Policy #3
Justification: The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires that all regulated animals be provided
adequate veterinary care.
Policy: Expired Medical Materials
The use of expired medical materials such as drugs, fluids, or sutures on
regulated animals is not considered to be acceptable veterinary practice and
does not constitute adequate veterinary care as required by the regulations
promulgated under the Animal Welfare Act. All expired medical materials
found in a licensed or registered facility are to be brought to the attention of
the responsible official. The facility must either dispose of all such materials or
segregate them in an appropriately labeled, physically separate location from
non-expired medical materials. The Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) has no jurisdiction over facilities using expired medical materials for
non-regulated animals or non-regulated activities.
For acute terminal procedures, APHIS does not oppose the use of expired
medical materials if their use does not adversely affect the animal's well-being
or compromise the validity of the scientific study. Proper anesthesia, analgesia,
and euthanasia are required for all such procedures. Drugs administered to
relieve pain or distress and emergency drugs must not be used beyond their 1
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Veterinary Care
AC 3.2
expiration date. Facilities allowing the use of expired medical materials in
acute terminal procedures should have a policy covering the use of such
materials and/ or require investigators to describe in their animal activity
proposals the intended use of expired materials. The attending veterinarian and
the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) are responsible for
ensuring that proposed animal activities avoid or minimize discomfort, distress,
and pain to the animal. These responsibilities cannot be met unless the
veterinarian and the IACUC maintain control over the use of expired medical
materials.
Pharmaceutical-Grade Compounds in Research
Investigators are expected to use pharmaceutical-grade medications whenever
they are available, even in acute procedures. Non-pharmaceutical-grade
chemical compounds should only be used in regulated animals after specific
review and approval by the IACUC for reasons such as scientific necessity or
non-availability of an acceptable veterinary or human pharmaceutical-grade
product. Cost savings alone are not an adequate justification for using non-pharmaceutical-
grade compounds in regulated animals.
Surgery
AWA regulations require that survival surgeries be performed using aseptic
techniques and that major operative procedures on nonrodents be performed
only in dedicated surgical facilities. Nonsurvival surgeries require neither
aseptic techniques nor dedicated facilities if the subjects are not anesthetized
long enough to show evidence of infection. Research facilities doing surgical
demonstrations while traveling must use aseptic techniques and dedicated
surgical facilities. Motel meeting rooms and auditoriums do not qualify as
dedicated surgical facilities.
Nonsurvival surgeries not performed aseptically or in a dedicated facility must
at least be performed in a clean area, free of clutter, and using acceptable
veterinary sanitation practices analogous to those used in a standard
examination/ treatment room. Personnel present in the area must observe
reasonable cleanliness practices for both themselves and the animals. Eating,
drinking, or smoking are not acceptable in surgery areas, and locations used for
food handling purposes do not qualify as acceptable areas for performing
surgeries.
Pre-and Post-Procedural Care
All animal activity proposals involving surgery must provide specific details of 2
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Issue Date: January 14, 2000
AC 3.3
pre-through post-procedural care and relief of pain and distress. The specific
details must be approved by the attending veterinarian or his/ her designee.
However, the attending veterinarian retains the authority to change post-operative
care as necessary to ensure the comfort of the animal. The
withholding of pain and/ or distress relieving care must be scientifically justified
in writing and approved by the IACUC. The appropriate use of drugs to
relieve pain and/ or distress must be specified in the animal activity proposal to
avoid possible delays due to investigator concerns that a treatment regimen
may interfere with the study. Furthermore, the specified drugs for relief of pain
and/ or distress must be readily available for use as described in the proposal.
While an animal is under post-surgical care, the ownership of the animal is not
to change. If the animal is taken to an off-site location, such as a farm, for
post-operative care, that location should be identified as a site of the research
facility. An animal is not to be taken to an off-site location before it fully
recovers from anesthesia unless justified in the animal activity proposal.
Appropriate post-operative records must be maintained in accordance with
professionally accepted veterinary procedures regardless of the location of the
animal.
Program of Veterinary Care
Facilities which do not have a full-time attending veterinarian must have a
written Program of Veterinary Care (PVC). This Program must consist of a
properly completed APHIS Form 7002 or an equivalent format providing all of
the information required by the APHIS form. The attending veterinarian must
visit the facility on a regular basis, i. e., often enough to provide adequate
oversight of the facility's care and use of animals but no less than annually.
Records of visits by the attending veterinarian must be kept to include dates of
the visits and comments or recommendations of the attending veterinarian or
other veterinarians.
The PVC must be reviewed and updated whenever necessary (e. g., as a new
species of animal or a new attending veterinarian is obtained, or the preventive
medical program changes). It must be initialed and dated by both the attending
veterinarian and the facility representative whenever it is changed or reviewed
without change. The preventive medical program described in the PVC is
expected to be in accordance with common good veterinary practices (e. g.,
appropriate vaccinations, diagnostic testing). It should include zoonotic
disease prevention measures and, if necessary, special dietary prescriptions.
Health Records 3
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Veterinary Care
AC 3.4
Health records are meant to convey necessary information to all people
involved in an animal's care. Every facility is expected to have a system of
health records sufficiently comprehensive to demonstrate the delivery of
adequate health care. For those facilities that employ one or more full-time
veterinarians, it is expected there will be an established health records system
consistent with professional standards that meets and probably exceeds, the
minimum requirements set forth in this policy. For facilities that do not employ
a full-time veterinarian, it is suggested the health records system be explained
as part of the written PVC, to ensure involvement of the attending veterinarian
in developing the system. For all facilities, health records must be current,
legible, and include, at a minimum, the following information:
! Identity of the animal.
! Descriptions of any illness, injury, distress, and/ or behavioral
abnormalities and the resolution of any noted problem.
! Dates, details, and results (if appropriate) of all medically-related
observations, examinations, tests, and other such
procedures.
! Dates and other details of all treatments, including the name,
dose, route, frequency, and duration of treatment with drugs or
other medications. ( A "check-off" system to record when
treatment is given each day may be beneficial.)
! Treatment plans should include a diagnosis and prognosis, when
appropriate. They must also detail the type, frequency, and
duration of any treatment and the criteria and/ or schedule for
re-evaluation( s) by the attending veterinarian. In addition, it
must include the attending veterinarian's recommendation
concerning activity level or restrictions of the animal.
Examples of procedures which should be adequately documented in health
records include, but are not limited to, vaccinations, fecal examinations,
radiographs, surgeries, and necropsies. Routine husbandry and preventive
medical procedures (e. g., vaccinations and dewormings) performed on a group
of animals may be recorded on herd-health-type records. However, individual
treatment of an animal must be on an entry specific to that animal. As long as
all required information is readily available, records may be kept in any format
convenient to the licensee/ registrant (e. g., on cage cards for rodents).
Health records may be held by the licensee/ registrant (including, but not limited
to, the investigators at research facilities) or the attending veterinarian or
divided between both (if appropriately cross-referenced), but it is the
responsibility of the licensee/ registrant to ensure that all components of the 4
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AC 3.5
records are readily available and that the record as a whole meets the
requirements listed above.
An animal's health records must be held for at least 1 year after its disposition
or death. (Note: Some records may need to be held longer to comply with
other applicable laws or policies.) When an animal is transferred to another
party or location, a copy of the animal's health record must be transferred with
the animal. The transferred record should contain the animal's individual
medical history, information on any chronic or ongoing health problems, and
information on the most current preventive medical procedures (for example,
the most recent vaccinations and dewormings). For traveling exhibitors,
information on any chronic or ongoing health problems and information on the
most current preventive medical procedures must accompany any traveling
animals, but the individual medical history records may be maintained at the
home site.
Euthanasia
The method of euthanasia must be consistent with the current Report of the
AVMA Panel on Euthanasia. Gunshot is not an acceptable method of routine
euthanasia for any animal. Gunshot as a routine method of euthanasia not only
endangers surrounding animals, buildings, and personnel, but it is likely to
cause distress to other animals. It should only be used in situations where
other forms of acceptable euthanasia cannot be used (such as emergency or
field conditions where the animal cannot be appropriately restrained) or in
cases where gunshot will reduce danger to other animals or humans. Only
personnel skilled in the use of firearms, using appropriate firearms, and familiar
with the "kill point" of an animal should perform the euthanasia. If the firearm
is not aimed so that the projectile enters the brain and causes rapid
unconsciousness and subsequent death without evidence of pain or distress,
this method does not meet the definition of euthanasia. (All State and local
laws relevant to gunshot must also be met.) 5
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