Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience and Behavioral Research

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and to eliminate anxiety and possible physiologic and behavioral changes due to interspecies conflict” (p. 58). However, the well-defined health status of most research animals allows the risk of interspecies disease transmission to be reasonably assessed. The possibility of interspecies physiologic and behavioral stressors must also be evaluated. Occasionally, those stressors are an integral part of an experimental design. The veterinarian and IACUC should carefully evaluate such factors and work with the investigator to develop reasonable compromises that allow a balance between animal welfare and research objectives.

Neuroscience or behavioral research may also require the use of nontraditional primary enclosures or caging. Special configurations may allow less space than the standard minimal recommendations in the Guide. The Guide (p. 25) encourages the use of professional judgment and performance outcomes in assessing space needs for animals with special research needs. It is important that deviations from the Guide’s space recommendations be evaluated continuously, not just approved prospectively.

SURGERY AND PROCEDURES

Frequently, surgical procedures are required to meet the scientific needs of neuroscience research, and it is the responsibility of PIs, veterinarians, and IACUCs to ensure that the procedures are designed and conducted in a manner that complies with applicable animal-welfare guidelines and regulations. Interpreting the guidelines and regulations and applying them to a specific neuroscience procedure can be complicated, and it is important for all concerned to be cognizant of the relevant guidelines and regulations.

The Guide states that:

In general, surgical procedures are categorized as major or minor and in the laboratory setting can be further divided into survival and nonsurvival. Major survival surgery penetrates and exposes a body cavity or produces substantial impairment of physical or physiologic functions (such as laparotomy, thoracotomy, craniotomy, joint replacement, and limb amputation). Minor survival surgery does not expose a body cavity and causes little or no physical impairment (such as wound suturing; peripheral-vessel cannulation; such routine farm-animal procedures as castration, dehorning, and repair of prolapses; and most procedures routinely done on an “outpatient” basis in veterinary clinical practice) [pp. 61–62].

Minor procedures are often performed under less-stringent conditions than major procedures but still require aseptic technique and instruments and appropriate anesthesia. Although laparoscopic procedures are often performed on an “outpatient” basis, appropriate aseptic technique is necessary if a body cavity is penetrated [p. 62].

The definition of a major operative procedure in the AWRs is almost identical with that in the Guide except that it refers to permanent, rather than substan-

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