More stringent animal-care rules hurting smaller labs

By Jim Barlow

The way Gale Taylor sees it, increasing regulations have improved the care
of the nation's laboratory animals, but costly, time-consuming compliance
efforts are hurting scientific morale and threatening the ability of small
institutions to provide biomedical education.

Taylor's opinion is built on front-line experience. In eight years with 
the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, 
including the last year as chairman of AAALAC's Council on Accreditation,
Taylor has reviewed reports on more than 1,000 animal research facilities
and participated in 100 site inspections. His service with AAALAC ends 
June 30.

Institutional membership is voluntary, but more than half of the nation's
more than 1,200 schools that use animals in research belong to AAALAC. The
majority of government-related research funding goes to AAALAC-accredited
schools.

Large universities that use animals in research have the resources 
necessary for compliance with increasing federal regulations, including 
the construction of facilities or the renovation of existing ones, said 
Taylor, a veterinarian and director of lab animal care at the University 
of Illinois.

However, "All of us are losers when small institutions decide they can no
longer be involved in animal research," Taylor said. "I have asked 
researchers attending conferences for a show of hands from those who got 
their first degree at a small college. A surprisingly high percentage of 
them raise their hands. And many say that the biological sciences may not
have been very high on their career lists, but that they got their fires 
lit at a small college in a biology or zoology course."

Because of the financial burden of compliance, Taylor said, many small 
institutions will have to give up their animals if the U.S. Department of
Agriculture is forced to place mice, rats and birds under the Animal 
Welfare Act. Those small species already fall under the Health Research 
Extension Act, Good Laboratory Practices Act and the Public Health 
Service's "Guide for the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals." 
Taylor believes existing regulations are sufficient.

Taylor's interest in lab-animal medicine began early during his 20 years 
of service in the U.S. Air Force, which he joined in 1962, five years 
after he graduated from the UI College of Veterinary Medicine. One of his
first military assignments was working with monkeys and chimpanzees bound
for NASA's space program.

In the Winter 1993 AAALAC Communique, Taylor wrote that many good 
scientists are exploring "other career options" because of the bureaucracy
spawned by legislative mandates.

If the trends continue, they could effectively shut down animal research 
and negate past program improvements, Taylor wrote.