42 U.S.C. § 289d — Animals in research

(a) Establishing guidelines. The Secretary, acting through the Director of NIH, must create guidelines covering three things. First, the guidelines must cover the proper care of animals used in biomedical and behavioral research. Second, they must cover the proper treatment of animals during that research. These treatment guidelines must require the right use of tranquilizers, painkillers, anesthetics, paralyzing drugs, and euthanasia. They must also require proper veterinary and nursing care for animals before and after surgery. The guidelines cannot tell researchers what research methods to use — only how to treat the animals. Third, the guidelines must cover how animal care committees are organized and run, as described in subsection (b). (b) Animal care committees. Every entity that does biomedical or behavioral research with money from this chapter — including the National Institutes of Health and the national research institutes — must have an animal care committee. This committee makes sure the entity follows the guidelines from subsection (a). The entity's chief executive officer appoints the committee. It must have at least three members, including at least one person with no connection to the entity and at least one licensed veterinarian. The committee must review the entity's animal care and facilities at least twice a year to check for compliance. It must keep records of these reviews. At least once a year, it must file two things with the Director of NIH: a certification that the review happened, and any reports of guideline violations that the entity has not fixed after the committee warned it. These reports must include any dissenting views from committee members. (c) Assurances required in applications. Anyone applying for an NIH or national research institute grant, contract, or cooperative agreement involving animal research must include certain promises in their application. This requirement applies to applications submitted after the twelve months following November 20, 1985. The applicant must assure the Director of NIH that it meets the care and treatment guidelines and has an animal care committee that meets subsection (b)'s requirements. It must also assure that scientists, animal technicians, and other staff who work with the animals have access to training in humane animal care and in methods that limit animal use and animal distress. The applicant must also explain, in a statement, why the research needs to use animals. Any regulations written under this subsection must go through public notice and comment, even though a general rule in section 553(a)(2) of title 5 would normally allow the government to skip that step. (d) Failure to meet guidelines. The Director of NIH can suspend or revoke a grant or contract if three things are true: the entity's animal care doesn't meet the guidelines; the Director told the entity about the problem and gave it a fair chance to fix it; and the entity still didn't fix it. The Director decides the terms of the suspension or revocation. (e) Disclosure of trade secrets. No guideline made under subsection (a), and no regulation made under subsection (c), can force a research entity to publicly reveal its trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information.