Department of Animal Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Lab Anim (NY). 2012 Jul 20;41(8):230-5. doi: 10.1038/laban0812-230.
Nearly half of all external grants from the US National Institutes of Health require approval by the recipient organization's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before the funds can be used for research with animals. Given that large sums of money are spent annually on research involving animals, studies evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and overall effectiveness of IACUCs and similar animal welfare committees are needed. The authors designed and carried out a self-assessment survey on IACUC function and effectiveness. They found that 98% of all respondents believed that their IACUCs advanced animal welfare, but in many instances, veterinarians' responses to individual survey items were significantly different from those of other IACUC members. Protocol compliance, protocol review training and better understanding among non-committee members of the need for regulatory oversight are some areas where improvements could be made. Less than 50% of respondents stated that literature searches to find alternatives to animal use or painful or distressful procedures were helpful.
近一半的美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）外部拨款要求在资金用于动物研究之前，由受赠组织的机构动物护理和使用委员会（IACUC）批准。鉴于每年都有大量资金用于涉及动物的研究，因此需要对 IACUC 和类似的动物福利委员会的优势、劣势和整体有效性进行评估。作者设计并开展了一项关于 IACUC 功能和有效性的自我评估调查。他们发现，所有受访者中有 98% 认为他们的 IACUC 提高了动物福利，但在许多情况下，兽医对个别调查项目的回答与其他 IACUC 成员的回答有显著差异。改善的方面包括：遵守方案、方案审查培训以及让非委员会成员更好地理解监管监督的必要性。不到 50%的受访者表示，寻找替代动物使用或痛苦或痛苦程序的文献搜索是有帮助的。
