Literature search strategies to comply with institutional animal care and use committee review requirements.

Under the US Animal Welfare Act, principal investigators who propose to use animals in their research must demonstrate that they have considered alternatives to potentially painful or distressful procedures when submitting applications to Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs). IACUCs requires that applicants conduct a current literature search to determine if alternatives are available to substitute the proposed animal use and, if the proposed study involves pain or distress, that more humane procedures, as they are described in the literature, be considered. This paper suggests literature search strategies that can be considered for use in order to comply with this IACUC requirement.