Assessing the health status of animals is certainly part of the veterinary program. Many institutions use standard operating procedures to describe the procedures done by the veterinary staff during quarantine. The veterinary staff often carries out diagnostic work that may include monitoring and sample collection to ensure or to confirm the health status of new animals arriving at the facility. Veterinary diagnostic procedures do not typically require coverage under an IACUC-approved protocol, although the IACUC reviews the veterinary program, including these procedures, as part of the semiannual review.
In this case, the guinea pigs are being used as part of the sentinel program, rather than as part of quarantine procedures. The protocol covering the sentinel program should include a description of the veterinary technicians and other personnel who handle animals for this purpose. This protocol should include guinea pigs, along with any other species routinely monitored in the program. If guinea pigs are not included, the sentinel protocol should be amended to include the species, procedure descriptions and justification for the number of animals used in the guinea pig surveillance program. IACUC-approved procedures are protocol-specific and species-specific. Because samples are taken from live animals, which requires handling the animals, these procedures must be included in an IACUC-approved protocol. We see two options in this case: (i) the guinea pigs should be transferred to the already established institutional sentinel protocol for sample collection or (ii) the researcher's protocol should be amended to include the surveillance procedures, in a manner consistent with the institutional IACUC requirements.
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