Guidelines and Policies
Guidelines
General Guidelines
The CCAC’s general guidelines documents provide guiding principles for the ethical care and use of all animals used for scientific purposes. These guidelines streamline information for investigators, animal care committees, facility managers, veterinarians, technicians, and animal care personnel to help facilitate improvement in both the care given to animals and the manner in which experimental procedures are carried out. While these apply to all animals in science, more specific information can be found in the CCAC guidelines developed for specific types of animals.
The guidelines contained within the Guide to Care and Use of Experimental Animals, vol 1, 2nd edition (1993) are currently being revised. Sections still in use are indicated in the Guide; however, if more current guidelines exists on the CCAC website, they supersede any related information appearing in the Guide.
Throughout the CCAC guidelines, the term 'should' is used to indicate an obligation, for which any exceptions must be justified to, and approved by, an animal care committee. The term 'must' is used for mandatory requirements.
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Between now and 2030, institutions must continue to categorize their protocols using the current CCAC’s categories of invasiveness in animal experiments and submit their annual animal use data to the CCAC using categories of invasiveness and not the categories of welfare impact.
Laboratory animal facilities
Please note that minor revisions were made to this guidelines document in May 2020 to remove outdated information.