The following HTML text is provided to enhance online
readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML.
Please use the page image
as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy.
tial, impairment of functions (AWR 1.1). Both the Guide and the AWRs offer additional language related specifically to the conduct of survival surgical procedures—those in which the animal is allowed to awaken from surgical anesthesia. The Guide provides detailed recommendations regarding facility requirements for survival surgery (pp. 62–63, 78–79) and also states:
In general, unless an exception is specifically justified as an essential component of the research protocol and approved by the IACUC, nonrodent aseptic surgery should be conducted only in facilities intended for that purpose [p. 62].
The relative susceptibility of rodents to surgical infection has been debated; available data suggest that subclinical infections can cause adverse physiologic and behavioral responses (Beamer, 1972; Bradfield et al., 1992; Cunliffe-Beamer, 1990; Waynforth, 1980, 1987) that can affect both surgical success and research results. Some characteristics of common laboratory-rodent surgery—such as smaller incision sites, fewer personnel in the surgical team, manipulation of multiple animals at one sitting, and briefer procedures—as opposed to surgery in larger species, can make modifications in standard aseptic techniques necessary or desirable (Brown, 1994; Cunliffe-Beamer, 1993). Useful suggestions for dealing with some of the unique challenges of rodent surgery have been published (Cunliffe-Beamer, 1983, 1993) [p. 63].
The AWRs stipulate:
Activities that involve surgery include appropriate provision for pre-operative and post-operative care of the animals in accordance with established veterinary medical and nursing practices. All survival surgery will be performed using aseptic procedures, including surgical gloves, masks, sterile instruments, and aseptic techniques. Major operative procedures on non-rodents will be conducted only in facilities intended for that purpose which shall be operated and maintained under aseptic conditions. Non-major operative procedures and all surgery on rodents do not require a dedicated facility, but must be performed using aseptic procedures. Operative procedures conducted at field sites need not be performed in dedicated facilities, but must be performed using aseptic procedures [AWR 2.31 (d)(1)(ix)].
When preparing animal-use protocols for neuroscience experiments that require surgical procedures, PIs must take care to describe all aspects of their proposed perioperative procedures accurately and completely. In reviewing the protocols, veterinarians and IACUCs must ensure that proposed surgical procedures are properly classified as major or minor, survival or nonsurvival, and rodent or nonrodent. Furthermore, veterinarians and IACUCs must ensure that the surgical procedures are performed in a manner that complies with the Guide and the AWRs; for example, major nonrodent survival surgery should be conducted in a dedicated surgical suite.
Although that sounds relatively straightforward, the complexities of contemporary neuroscience research demand that professional judgment, guided by outcome or performance-based considerations (NRC, 1996, p. 3) be used at each
Items in cart [0]
