Alternatives

NIH - Searching for Alternatives to Painful Procedures Used on Research Animals.  Tip sheet for preparation of the Literature Search for Alternatives 
pdf/alternativesSearchTips.pdf

The AWA requires the Principal Investigator to consider alternatives to procedures that may cause pain or distress to animals and to provide a written narrative of the methods used and sources consulted to determine the availability of alternatives. One should consider alternatives during the planning of the animal use proposal. If a bona fide alternative method is identified, the written narrative should justify why this alternative was not used.

To ensure compliance, one should adhere to the following principles and practices:

• The narrative enables IACUC to assess that a reasonable and good faith effort was made to determine availability of alternatives or alternative methods.
• Minimize animal pain and distress without compromising research goals using the 3Rs.
  • Replacement - non-animal systems or less sentient animal species
  • Reduction - better experimental design to minimize the number of animals required to obtain scientifically-valid data
  • Refinement - techniques that decrease or eliminate pain or distress
• Perform a database search and provide a narrative which includes:
  • Names of databases searched (Consult more than one database).
  • Date the search was performed
  • Period covered by the search
  • Keywords and/or the search strategy used

See USDA's website for additional help

http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/alternatives/searches/altwksht.pdf