Category C – Protocols involving no significant pain or distress for the study animals.

• All procedures typically performed in a veterinary medical clinical setting without the routine use of anesthetics, analgesics or tranquilizers.
• Short-term and skillful restraint of animals for purposes of observations/physical examination or to perform a procedure involving minimal or no pain.
• Administration of non-toxic doses of material by the following routes: intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, inhalation, or oral, but not intrathoracic, intracardiac, or intracheal.
• AVMA approved methods of euthanasia.
• Food and/or water restriction resulting in a body weight no less than 90% of normal body weight.
• Physical restraint beyond that required for simple observation or examination, but consistent with minimal distress.
• Behavioral experiments on conscious animals that involve mild noxious stimuli from which escape is possible.
• Immunization procedures conducted in accord with IACUC guidelines.

Category D - Protocols involving significant pain or distress for the study animals that is relieved with the appropriate use of anesthetics, analgesics, and/or tranquilizers.

1. High D

• Major surgical procedures under general anesthesia with subsequent recovery following which analgesics are administered when indicated.

  2. Low D

• Minor surgical procedures under general anesthesia with subsequent recovery following which analgesics are administered when indicated.

• Acute non-survival studies, in which the animals are maintained at a surgical plane of anesthesia for the duration of the study immediately following which the animals are euthanized without regaining consciousness.

• Nonsurgical procedures that may be potentially painful or stressful conducted under anesthesia, or heavy sedation, e.g., retroorbital bleeding, decapitation, and cervical dislocation.

Category E – Protocols involving significant pain or distress for the study animals that cannot be relieved with the use of anesthetics, analgesics or tranquilizing drugs because it would adversely affect the study results or interpretation of the results. Scientifically/medically sound justification to withhold the use of agents to relieve pain or distress is required.

• Induction of anatomic or physiological abnormalities that will result in significant pain or distress including those resulting in disabilities that significantly affect the animals ability to eat, drink, ambulate, or make normal postural adjustments.
• Decapitation and cervical dislocation without benefit of anesthesia.
• Physical restraint for periods consistent with more than minimal distress.
• Studies involving the application of noxious or stressful stimuli from which escape is impossible.
• Procedures that cause severe, persistent, or irreversible disruption of sensorimotor organization, e.g., paralysis.
• Food and/or water restriction intended to produce greater than 10% loss from normal body weight.
• All studies that involve death without benefit of anesthesia including studies that designate “death as an endpoint.” Strong scientifically/medically sound justification is required.
• The administration of toxic compounds or infectious agents that may be expected to result in serious pain, discomfort, illness or death, even when death is not the intended endpoint. This includes therapeutic drugs known to be toxic and compounds of unknown toxicity.
• Attempts to induce psychotic-like behavior.
• Monoclonal antibody production using the in vivo ascites method in mice.
• Procedures resulting in significant post-procedural pain that cannot be alleviated with analgesics.

Approved at the December 2001 IACUC Meeting