Institutional guidelines
A number of institutions publish on-line their internal guidelines for animal care and use. Many of these contain very helpful information.
Emory University, School of Medicine
Guidelines on humane endpoints and acclimatisation of animals. www.emory.edu/IACUC/
Oakland University
Training and information manual for Animal Care and Use. Details of species-specific data, principles of anaesthesia and analgesia, perioperative care, aseptic technique, assessing pain and distress and euthanasia. Copies can be down loaded from the following site , following the links to ‘animal care’.
www2.oakland.edu/research/web/compliance/regenv.cfm?ID=2
Ohio State University
The University Laboratory Animal Resources site has a very comprehensive guide for survival surgery in rodents. http://ular.osu.edu/
Stanford University
Guidelines on the use of adjuvants, humane end-points, maintaining tumor cell lines, rodent survival surgery, anaesthetic monitoring and animal transport.
http://labanimals.stanford.edu/
University of Arizona
The IACUC handbook has an excellent section on pain and distress; the other valuable feature of this site is the training modules which are species specific and have been designed for self-instruction. Species include sheep and goat, cattle, swine, rodents, and rabbits. Each modules contains comprehensive information on species-specific OH&S issues, guidelines for animal husbandry, behaviour and handling and physiology; notes can be downloaded. www.ahsc.arizona.edu/uac/
University of California, Davis
Guidelines on survival surgery in rodents, anaesthetic and analgesic drug dosages.
http://safetyservices.ucdavis.edu/iacuc
University of California, San Francisco
Guidelines on anaesthesia, aseptic surgery, euthanasia of large animals, post-procedural analgesia, rodent anaesthesia and surgical management, survival large animal surgery, survival rodent surgery, and transport. www.larc.ucsf.edu/index.cfm
University of Iowa
Guidelines on anaesthesia/analgesia, monitoring anaesthetised animals, acclimation, housing, use and alternatives to Freunds Complete Adjuvant (FCA), rodent survival surgery, post-procedure care and monitoring. Also an excellent biomethodology section for mouse, rat, rabbit and guinea pig. http://research.uiowa.edu/animal/
University of Minnesotta
Research Animal Resources site has detailed guidelines on experimental procedures, surgery, anaesthesia and euthanasia as well as on-line tutorials in the humane care and use of laboratory and agricultural animals. www.ahc.umn.edu/rar/
University of Missouri
Office of Animal Resources Handbook on Humane Animal Care and Use - includes chapters on handling laboratory animals, control of pain and distress, surgery and post-operative care. Can be down loaded from:
http://oar.missouri.edu/OAR_WEB$/insideoar/aboutoar2.htm
University of Newcastle
Information on AEC operation, guidelines including minimising animal numbers, monitoring animals, use of S4 and S8 drugs, use of native animals. www.newcastle.edu.au/research/animal/index.html
University of Texas
This site lists a number of useful SOP’s. www.utexas.edu/research/arc/
Washington State University
Guidelines on sterilisation of instruments for aseptic surgery and rodent survival surgery.