Almost 20 years ago1 and more recently in its Frequently Asked Questions2, the NIH's Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (NIH/OLAW) clarified that the use of sentinel animals in a laboratory animal disease recognition and prevention program should be covered by an IACUC-approved protocol. The Great Eastern University IACUC had always assumed that the school's IACUC-approved sentinel animal protocol met the intent of NIH/OLAW for helping to assure the well-being of animals and compliance with federal regulations. Furthermore, over the years, through many vivarium accreditation site visits and inspections by the veterinary medical officers of the USDA, no comments were ever made about Great Eastern's sentinel animal protocol.
Dr. Rhett Parks' guinea pigs arrived on a Monday, and after a few days of acclimatization to the vivarium, the assigned veterinary technician collected fresh feces and swabs of cells from the mucosal surface of the animals' cheeks. The samples were to be used to test for the presence of pathogen DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. The Great Eastern sentinel animal protocol specified that colony animals would be used for this testing because of the simplicity of the collection procedures and the greater likelihood of detecting pathogens from pooled samples taken directly from colony animals.
At the semiannual program review, the sentinel animal program was discussed, and one of the participants asked a simple question: if samples for PCR analysis are taken directly from a researcher's animal rather than from a sentinel animal, and if the animal must be handled in order to obtain the sample, should this activity be approved on the researcher's protocol or on the sentinel animal protocol? A simple question, perhaps, but is the answer simple? What is your opinion?
References
Potkay, S., Garnett, N.L., Miller, J.G., Pond, C.L. & Doyle, D.J. Frequently Asked Questions about the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Lab Anim. (NY) 24, 24–26 (1995).
Public Health Service. Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals—Frequently Asked Questions. Protocol Review, Question No. D.16. (US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, 2006, revised 2013).
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Silverman, J. Using research animals as sentinels. Lab Anim 42, 317 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.364
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.364
