ARRP policies and guidelines » Wildlife research »

Captive wildlife

1. Introduction

These Guidelines are a list of procedures considered by the Animal Research Review Panel's Wildlife Advisory Group:

to be of minimal impact and
likely to occur at short notice and
likely to vary only in the timing and the individual animal involved and
able to be carried out when the animal is being handled during other procedures
if not done would require additional intrusion on the animal at a later time.

'Other procedures' include normal husbandry procedures, veterinary treatment and management procedures such as transfer of the animal to another enclosure.

2. Proposed AEC approval procedure

The Subcommittee proposes that an AEC supervising research on captive native animals can approve the procedures outlined below without proscribing the timing, number and individual animals involved, if done by a competent person.

The competency of the individual must be established to the AEC. This person must be capable of assessing the overall impact of the additional procedures on the animal(s).

Protocols put to the AEC in these cases would not specify the exact timing of the procedure. AEC approval would allow procedures (as listed in section 3.0) to be carried out whenever the opportunity allows over a given period (eg 12 months) by the approved method and by the approved person or people.

The AEC should routinely review the protocol every 12 months. A record should be kept in a register by researchers for perusal by the AEC which details the date and nature of the activity, the animals and personnel involved.

The use of such a register to establish a bank of stored specimens for access by external researchers would reduce the overall impact on the animals by reducing the number of times samples have to be taken.

3. Procedures

All procedures must cause minimal further interference and be done by the approved methods. Procedures which may be approved:

collection of samples of hair, feathers, scales, milk, skin scrapings, faeces;
collection of blood when samples are being taken anyway and the volume of blood would not be significantly increased and would not have significant impact on the welfare of the animal;
measurement of; body weight, respiration rate, heart rate, pulse rate, body temperature and body lengths.

Animal Research Review Panel Guideline 2