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In article <1992May12.004707.17675@yang.earlham.edu> allens@yang.earlham.edu (Allen Smith) writes:
>
>	What are the current regulations for doing experiments with 
>animals, and which are only applicable if one is doing research with 
>government funding?

There are many regulations that are related to the care and use of
animals in research in the United States.

1.  For all "research facilities" (defined as "any school [except an
    elementary or secondary school], institution, organization, or
    person that uses or intends to use live animals in research,
    tests, or experiemnts, and that [1] purchases or transports live
    animals in commerce, or [2] receives fund under a grant, award,
    loan, or contract from a department, agency, or instrumentality
    of the United Stated for the purpose of carrying out research,
    tests, or experiments") must comply with Animal Welfare Act (as
    amended, 7 U.S.C. Subsec. 2131-2157).  The regulations of that
    Act are overseen by the Department of Agriculture and are
    published in the Federal Register on August 31, 1989 Vol. 54, pp
    36112-36163, July 16, 1990 Vol. 55 pp 28879-28884, Febraury 15,
    1991 Vol. 56 pp 6426-6505.  The bottom line is that any
    institution that does research in the United States, whether it
    receives government (federal, state, or local) monies or not,
    and any institution outside the United States that receives U.S.
    government monies, must comply with these pages and pages of
    regulations.  These regulations apply to all animals (defined as
    "any dead dog, cat, nonhuman primate, guinea pig, hamster,
    rabbit or any other warmblooded animal, which is being used, or
    is intended for use for research, teaching, testing,
    experimentation, or exhibition purposes, or as a pet [at the
    institution].  This term excludes: Birds, rats of the genus
    Rattus and mice of the genus Mus bred for research."  One side
    note, the USDA was sued for the non-inclusion of birds, rats,
    and mice under their regulations and lost.  The USDA has decided
    not to appeal at this time.  This probably means (my
    interpretation) that the full regulations on other warm-blooded
    vertebrates will apply to these animals within a 3-5 year time
    frame (the time it will take to develop the regulations).

2.  Any institution receiving Public Health Service money (the
    funding agencies under Department of Health and Human Services
    such as NIH, ADAMHA, etc.) must comply with "Public Health
    Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"
    (from Office for Protection of Research Risks, NIH) and the
    "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (NIH
    Publication # 86-23).  These guidelines are applicable to any
    institution (defined as "any public or private organization,
    business, or agency [including components of federal, state, and
    local governments]") that uses animals (defined as "any live,
    vertebrate animal used or intended for use in research, research
    training, experimentation, or biological testing or for related
    purposes").  This means this covers ALL vertebrates.  There are
    some exceptions, for example, an early chicken egg embryo is
    excluded.  But, birds, rats, mice, fish, amphibians, etc. are
    all covered.  All other Executive Branch animal funding sources,
    such as NSF, DOD, etc. require all organizations to meet this
    regulations as well.

In practice, an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC -
pronounced Eye-Ah-Kook) which is required to be established by both
sets of regulations apply the basic rules across all species with
some minor variances for rats, mice, birds, and cold-blooded
vertebrates.

So, to answer your question, all regulations are applicable if your
institution gets ANY government funds.  If your institution only
receives and uses non-governmental funds, then the USDA regulations
alone apply.  However, the USDA regulations are much stricter in
general than the NIH guidelines.
-- 
Terence P. Ma, Ph.D.		Department of Anatomy
VOICE:	   601-984-1654		University of Mississippi Med. Ctr.
FAX:	   601-984-1655		2500 North State Street
INTERNET:  tpm@anat.UMSMED.EDU	Jackson, MS 39216-4505