The IACUC, veterinary staff and Office of Research Compliance at Great Eastern University conscientiously tried to assure that all animals received the pain-relieving drugs that were approved by the IACUC. Nevertheless, mistakes did happen occasionally, such as when one lab technician erroneously believed that another technician was administering a once-daily dose of analgesic to a dog, with the result that the dog did not receive its pain relief at all. The error was discovered the next day and reported to the IACUC. The correct schedule of providing analgesia was reinitiated, with the laboratory manager clarifying work assignments for the technicians.
An IACUC subcommittee investigated the incident and determined that it was an unfortunate but unintentional error in a laboratory that had no previous deviations from its approved protocols. No suspension or other sanction was deemed necessary. At the next IACUC meeting, the subcommittee's report of the episode was discussed, approved and entered into the minutes. The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare was informed of the incident and its resolution.
When it came time to submit the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) annual report, the IACUC administrator placed the dog in column D (pain or distress alleviated by drugs). The IACUC chair questioned this placement, believing that the dog should be in column E (pain or distress not alleviated by drugs) because of the prolonged time that had passed before analgesia was once again provided. But the administrator stated that using column D was in line with a previous clarification from the USDA1 and, in addition, that column E is reserved for animals for which pain- or distress-alleviating drugs are not used because of experimental needs. In this case there was no experimental need to withhold drugs, which the administrator said supported the use of column D.
Do you think that the IACUC administrator's explanation and actions were correct, or was the IACUC chairman right? Would you have taken any actions that were not taken by the Great Eastern IACUC?
References
Brown, P. & Gipson, C. A word from OLAW and USDA. Lab Anim. (NY) 38, 347 (2009).
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Silverman, J. Accidental failure to administer an analgesic. Lab Anim 43, 347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.624
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.624
