I agree with Manes that research laboratories should keep euthanasia records for research animals. These records could include protocol number; animal identification number (or, for rodent pups euthanized before weaning, the number of pups); location of the animal (room and cage numbers); species; breed or strain; sex; date of birth; date of euthanasia; name, amount and route of administration of euthanasia agent; name, amount and route of administration of sedative; secondary method used to confirm death; and reason for euthanasia. The information in these records is pertinent to both USDA-covered and non-covered species. The institutional animal resource program can help to design and mandate use of a standardized form for euthanasia records to promote consistency.

Many research laboratories use only one species of animals as their research subjects, but they may utilize different methods of euthanasia1 depending on the research protocol. I think that organizing the euthanasia records according to the agent used for euthanasia will be more informative than organizing them according to the date of euthanasia. Euthanasia records can be maintained in a folder with various sections, just like the paper records for usage of controlled substances in the research laboratories, which can be inspected by the IACUC members.

As a general practice, research staff members maintain detailed records for all the animals used in a research project that include much of the information listed above. In addition, for USDA-covered species, individual animal charts are maintained and may include much of this information. Research institutions also have some form of animal observation sheets for sick, injured or moribund animals on which the dates of death or euthanasia are recorded. Because all these records are maintained separately, it would be cumbersome to extract all the pertinent information on euthanasia procedures used by a laboratory for analysis. Furthermore, the dates of euthanasia of excess mouse or rats pups at the time of weaning are rarely recorded. These animals are not usually assigned identification numbers or otherwise recorded on the cage cards, which may only contain information on the number of pups born and their dates of birth.

For these reasons, I believe that laboratories should keep dedicated euthanasia records. Such records could be useful in identifying trends in euthanasia practices. For example, if researchers note that excessive number of neonatal mouse pups are being euthanized, they may decrease the number of breeding cages.

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