Directly from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) includes standards and practice standards. 

Guide_8th_v1 “Recommendations in the Guide are based on published data, scientific principles, expert opinion, and experience with methods and practices that have proved to be consistent with both high-quality research and humane animal care and use.” (Guide, Preface)

The Guide is intended to provide institutions in caring for and using animals in ways judged to be scientifically, technically, and humanely appropriate. The guide includes descriptions of institutional responsibilities and professional standards. 

Institutional responsibilities include monitoring animal care and use, provisions for veterinary care, training for personnel, and the establishment of an appropriate occupational health and safety program. 

Professional standards encompass the animal environment, animal husbandry and management, veterinary care, and design and construction of animal facilities.

Familiarity with the standards and recommendations of the Guide is important because the PHS Policy mandates that institutions use the Guide as a basis for developing and implementing an animal care and use program.

When institutions house animals they become responsible for many apsects of their care, including veterinary care. Below are guidelines that IACUCs use to determine that adequate veterinary care is being provided to such animals. 

This comes directly from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare: 

Veterinary care is important to provide for all animals housed at the intuition, or animals that may experience pain or distress as a result of the planned activities. 

Each institution will have their own arrangements for veterinary care. Some will have full time veterinarians to care for the animals – generally larger research institutions and universities. Others may have part-time veterinarians or consultant veterinary services. 

According to the Office of Laboratory Animal Research, the veterinary care program should contain the following components: access to all animals and periodic assessment of animal well-being; appropriate facilities, personnel, equipment, and services; treatment of diseases and injuries, and the availability of emergency, weekend and holiday care; guidelines for animal procurement and transportation; preventive medicine; presurgical planning, training, monitoring, and postsurgical care; relief of pain and distress including selection of analgesics, anesthetics, and tranquilizers; methods of euthanasia; and drug storage and control.

The attending veterinarian has authority to implement the veterinary care program, and to oversee the adequacy of all other aspects of animal care and use, e.g, animal husbandry, nutrition, sanitation practices, zoonosis control, and hazard containment.

The American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine's (ACLAM) Guidelines for Adequate Veterinary Care is a recommended reference on the topic of veterinary care.

Animals can sometimes pose a risk to the safety and welfare of the people who work with them. Therefore, it is important to consider safety for staff as well. 

According to the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, an effective occupational health and safety program must encompass all personnel that have contact with animals. Depending on the facility, research activities, hazards, and animal species involved, the program may not affect all personnel equally. 

Minimally, the program should include: pre-placement medical evaluation; identification of hazards to personnel and safeguards appropriate to the risks associated with the hazards; appropriate testing and vaccinations; training of personnel regarding their duties, any hazards, and necessary safeguards; policies and facilities that promote cleanliness; provisions for treating and documenting job-related injuries and illnesses; facilities, equipment, and procedures designed, selected, and developed to reduce the possibility of physical injury or health risk to personnel; good personal hygiene practices, prohibiting eating and drinking, use of tobacco products, and application of cosmetics and/or contact lenses in animal rooms and laboratories; and personal protective equipment (PPE).