A Commentary on Fasting of Nonclinical Research Animals

Abstract

This commentary discusses the implementation of fasting in nonclinical animal experimental subjects. The short-term removal of food from cages of experimental animals is in all respects innocuous. The term “stress” is ill-defined and the statutes and regulations governing animal research laboratories that exert their authority in the performance of their operations do so without substantive grounds to base compliance. The legislative and administrative history of the implementation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) has evolved into the development of laboratory management strategies that focus on the reduction of the biological cost of stress to the animals and the determination of when subclinical stress (eustress) becomes distress. Animal welfare is based on the tenet that in laboratories conducting animal research in compliance with Good Laboratory Practices (Title 21 USC, Chapter 13,§58), it is the study protocol and the study director that establish procedures and processes that are approved by each Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to ensure the humane care and use of animals in research, teaching, and testing and to ensure compliance with guidelines and regulations. This approval process establishes the justification of eustress in the environment that do not rise to the threshold of distress under the AWA.