Scientists Center For Animal Welfare
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Scientists Center For Animal Welfare
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Science Focus SCAW FOCUS GROUP On June 15, 2006 SCAW convened a Focus Group meeting led by SCAW Board of Trustees President Joseph Bielitzki. This meeting was held for half a day at ILAR headquarters at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The Focus Group plan was conceived at the December 2005 Board of Trustees meeting in San Antonio, TX. The main goal would be to investigate what scientists in different disciplines, who use animals in their research and testing protocols, might need to facilitate their research and animal welfare, and how SCAW could help. There were representatives from many different scientific disciplines and also from major associations like the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Physiological Society, Society of Toxicology, and several Institutes at the National Institutes of Health. The group of about twenty was divided into Presenters and Observers, but all who were present interacted and contributed to the discussion. Individual scientists’ disciplines included the above mentioned as well as neuroscience, nano science, pathology and laboratory animal medicine, zoology, cell biology and medicine, cancer research, and psychology. Joseph Bielitzki, DVM, MS, SCAW Board President and Associate Director and Professor at the Nano Science Technology Center, University of Central Florida, welcomed the distinguished attendees. He expressed the Board’s wishes that SCAW develop programs that would provide service(s) for the science community that uses laboratory animals. Ernest D, Prentice, member of the SCAW Board and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Regulatory Compliance and Associate Dean for Research at University of Nebraska Medical Center, gave a realistic and thoughtful talk on the principal investigator’s (PI) point of view: problems that consistently occur and some suggestions for resolution of these problematic issues. In essence, Dr. Prentice strongly believes that the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) should be in partnership with the principal investigator. Later during the discussion period, terms like mutual respect, assistance, cooperation, and communication were used – terms that support Dr. Prentice’s partnership relationship. Then Deborah Runkle presented projects that AAAS has completed or is developing about science and animals. This was followed by open discussion. In summary, it appears that there are several areas that need further contemplation and programs to provide more information and perhaps consensus. It is SCAW’s goal to explore some of these areas to provide more education, training and perhaps some consensus as to how these areas can be improved. Some of the main topics identified were [not necessarily in order of importance]:
Now SCAW can use the information discussed at this meeting to better identify these issues and to start developing SCAW programs, in cooperation with national associations and societies, to address these issues. SCAW will also use this information to:
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