Animal Welfare Challenges in Research and Education on Wildlife, Non-Model Animal Species and Biodiversity

______

Teresa J. Sylvina, Rapporteur

Institute for Laboratory Animal Research

Division on Earth and Life Studies

Proceedings of a Workshop

NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IOS-2135081. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This project was funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN26320180029I (75N98021F00011); U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Animal Care under Grant No. AP21AC000000G004; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Research under Contract No. 36C24E20R0038; and U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats under Grant No. R13FD006967. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-69015-7
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-69015-3
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26614

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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Animal Welfare Challenges in Research and Education on Wildlife, Non-Model Animal Species and Biodiversity: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26614.

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WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE ON DISCUSSING AND UNDERSTANDING ANIMAL WELFARE CHALLENGES IN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION ON WILDLIFE, NON-MODEL ANIMAL SPECIES AND BIODIVERSITY

ANNE MAGLIA (Co-Chair), University of Massachusetts Lowell

ROBERT S. SIKES (Co-Chair), University of Arkansas at Little Rock

BONNIE V. BEAVER, Texas A&M University

LAURA BIES, The Ornithological Council

CAROL L. CLARKE, U.S. Department of Agriculture

GAIL C. GOLAB, American Veterinary Medical Association

WILLIAM GREER, University of Michigan

ELAINE K. KIM, Colorado State University

PATRICE N. KLEIN, U.S. Department of Agriculture

SHARON SHRIVER, Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research

MICHAEL K. STOSKOPF, North Carolina State University

Workshop Staff^1,2

TERESA J. SYLVINA, Director, Strategic Initiatives on Animal Research; Director, Institute for Laboratory Animal Research and Roundtable on Science and Welfare in Laboratory Animal Use; Director, Collaborating Centre World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH; OIE¹)

CORRINE LUTZ, Senior Program Officer (until July 2022)

SUSANA RODRIGUEZ, Program Officer (as of September 2022)

JEANNE AQUILINO, Finance Business Partner

KYLE CAVAGNINI, Associate Program Officer (as of April 2022)

ANGELA (ELLA) BLUE, Senior Program Assistant

RENEE DALY, Program Assistant (as of May 2022)

ROUNDTABLE ON SCIENCE AND WELFARE IN LABORATORY ANIMAL USE

BONNIE V. BEAVER (Chair), Texas A&M University

JOSEPH T. NEWSOME (Vice-Chair), University of Pittsburgh

JILL ASCHER (Past Chair), National Institutes of Health

SZCZEPAN BARAN, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc.

CAROL L. CLARKE, U.S. Department of Agriculture

JOYCE COHEN, National Primate Research Centers, Yerkes Primate Center

NANCY DANIELS, Indiana University School of Medicine

ROBERT C. DYSKO, University of Michigan

JAMES G. FOX, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

JIM GNADT, National Institutes of Health

GAIL C. GOLAB, American Veterinary Medical Association

NEERA V. GOPEE, National Institutes of Health

DEB HICKMAN, Purdue University

LAWANDA HOLLAND, Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

MICHAEL HUERKAMP, Emory University

RICH KRAUZLIS, National Institutes of Health

DAVID M. KURTZ, National Institutes of Health

GEORGE LATHROP, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

MALCOLM MARTIN, National Institutes of Health

LORI S. PALLEY, Massachusetts General Hospital

PATRICIA PREISIG, Yale University

BARRY RICHMOND, National Institutes of Health

BRIANNA L. SKINNER, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

EDDA (FLOH) THIELS, National Science Foundation

SALLY THOMPSON-IRITANI, University of Washington

JOSEPH THULIN, Medical College of Wisconsin

PATRICIA V. TURNER, Charles River Laboratories

CHRISTINA WINNICKER, GlaxoSmithKline

ROBERT H. WURTZ (NAS, NAM), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

STANDING COMMITTEE FOR THE CARE AND USE OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH

JAMES G. FOX (Co-Chair), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SUE VANDEWOUDE (Co-Chair), Colorado State University

WILLIAM W. BOWERMAN IV, University of Maryland, College Park

DOUGLAS L. BRINING, University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston

KELLY RICE DECKER, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

JEFFREY EVERITT, Duke University

MICHAEL E. GOLDBERG, Columbia University

SUSAN B. HARPER, U.S. Department of Agriculture

RICHARD NAKAMURA, National Institutes of Health (Retired)

NATHANIEL POWELL, JR., U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ROBERT S. SIKES, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

JEROLD TANNEBAUM, University of California, Davis (Professor Emeritus)

KATHERINE THIBAULT, National Ecological Observatory Network, Battelle

INSTITUTE FOR LABORATORY ANIMAL RESEARCH^1,2

Council Members

ROBERT C. DYSKO (Chair), University of Michigan

CORY BRAYTON (Ex Officio Member), Johns Hopkins University

SONNET S. JONKER, Oregon Health & Science University

ANNE MAGLIA, University of Massachusetts Lowell

SUZAN MURRAY, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

BARBARA J. NATTERSON-HOROWITZ, University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard Medical School

GUY H. PALMER (NAM), Washington State University

CHRISTINE A. PETERSEN, University of Iowa

ROSALIND ROLLAND, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, New England Aquarium (Emeritus)

CAROLINE ZEISS, Yale School of Medicine

Staff^1,2

TERESA J. SYLVINA, Director, Strategic Initiatives on Animal Research; Director, ILAR; Director, Roundtable on Science and Welfare in Laboratory Animal Use; Director, Collaborating Centre World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH; OIE¹)

SUSANA RODRIGUEZ, Program Officer (as of September 2022)

JEANNE AQUILINO, Finance Business Partner

KYLE CAVAGNINI, Associate Program Officer

ANGELA (ELLA) BLUE, Senior Program Assistant

RENEE DALY, Program Assistant

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Reviewers

This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.

We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by STEPHEN W. BARTHOLD, University of California, Davis (Professor Emeritus). He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteur and the National Academies.

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Acknowledgments

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the workshop planning committee co-chairs, Anne Maglia and Robert Sikes, for their outstanding contributions to the development and orchestration of this workshop. ILAR also acknowledges and thanks all of the members of the workshop planning committee, who collaborated to ensure a workshop with targeted session objectives replete with informative presentations and moderated rich discussions, and the many workshop speakers who generously shared their expertise and time. ILAR is grateful to the members of the ILAR Roundtable on Science and Welfare in Laboratory Animal Use, the ILAR Standing Committee for the Care and Use of Animal in Research, and the ILAR Council. ILAR expresses its sincere thanks to Joe Newsome and Sally Thompson-Iritani for consulting and subject-matter expertise on the early draft of the workshop proceedings. In addition, ILAR acknowledges and extends its gratitude to ILAR Council Member Christine A. Petersen, University of Iowa, and Standing Committee and workshop planning committee member Robert Sikes, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, for their comments on an early draft of the proceedings; and to Anne Frances Johnson for her early draft of the proceedings. Gratitude also goes to ILAR staff: Susana Rodriguez, Jeanne Aquilino, Kyle Cavagnini, Angela (Ella) Blue, and Renee Daly, who contributed to preparing the final draft of the proceedings. Finally, ILAR expresses tremendous gratitude for the strong support of its workshop sponsors, without which it could not have undertaken this project, particularly the National Science Foundation’s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems along with funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service–Animal Care, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Research and Development, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats.

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In Memory of

Dr. Tracy Thompson

Tracy Thompson, D.V.M., was a noted expert on research involving wildlife species. She graduated from the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1997. After graduation, she had an amazing career. During the first stage of her career, she worked at several zoos in the Pacific Northwest and Western United States where she focused on improving animal habitats by focusing on the provision of naturalistic environments to foster animal welfare.

From zoo work, her career took her to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) where she served as a veterinary medical officer, primarily in Colorado. She was a frequent speaker at USDA-sponsored educational events throughout the country.

The last part of her career brought her to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service (NPS) as its second attending veterinarian. In that position, she managed wildlife studies conducted by the federal government. She also managed NPS’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and became a substantial contributor to the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Conferences and a faculty member for the Interagency Collaborative Animal Research Education Project.

Tracy is survived by her wonderful husband Kevin Thompson. She was a devoted wife and pet mom, as well as an avid outdoorswoman. She was also a fantastic friend who was incredibly supportive, and those who knew her will miss her dearly.

This modified tribute piece was originally written on a social media platform by Stacy Pritt, D.V.M., M.S., M.B.A., CPIA, CHRC, ECoP (EAR), DACAW, and republished with permission.

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Contents

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

WORKSHOP OPENING REMARKS

SESSION ONE: PERSPECTIVES ON ANIMAL WELFARE CONSIDERATIONS BETWEEN LABORATORY ANIMAL AND FREE-RANGING FISH AND WILDLIFE FIELD RESEARCH

Introduction to Wildlife Research Challenges and Animal Welfare

National Science Foundation Perspective

U.S. Department of Agriculture Perspective

National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare Perspective

AAALAC International Perspective: Wildlife Studies: Beyond the Three Primary Standards

SESSION TWO (PART 1): REVIEW OF THE LAWS, REGULATIONS, AND PERMITS ASSOCIATED WITH FISH AND WILDLIFE

Animal Welfare Challenges in Research and Education on Wildlife: A Natural History Museum Perspective

Challenges from the National Park Service Perspective

Research on Tribal Lands: Unique Examples

SESSION TWO (PART 2): CASE STUDIES AND EXAMPLES

Unique Challenges When Working with Free-Ranging Wildlife: Hummingbirds as a Case Study

Conducting Biodiversity Surveys in the New Age of Wildlife Discovery

Field Research Involving Reptiles and Amphibians, Remote Study Sites, and Undergraduate Students

SESSION THREE: WILD ANIMAL POPULATION CONCERNS

Challenges of High-Risk Fieldwork and Working with Venomous and Hazardous Species for IACUCs

Standards of Practice Facilitate Research and Management of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

Animal Welfare Challenges in Research on Amphibian Disease Ecology: Impacts on Natural Systems, Biodiversity, and Biosafety (Part 1)

Animal Welfare Challenges in Research on Amphibian Disease Ecology: Impacts on Natural Systems, Biodiversity, and Biosafety (Part 2)

A Brief Summary of the Inherent Aspects of Risk Management in the Context of Wildlife Animal Use Activities

DAY ONE SYNTHESIS SESSION

Session One Synthesis: Perspectives on Animal Welfare Considerations Between Laboratory Animal and Free-Ranging Fish and Wildlife Field Research

Session Two Synthesis: Review of the Laws, Regulations, and Permits Associated with Fish and Wildlife and Case Studies and Examples

Session Three Synthesis: Wild Animal Population Concerns

SESSION FOUR: RESTRAINT AND HANDLING OF ANIMALS IN THE FIELD TO INCLUDE THE USE OF COMPOUNDS FOR CAPTURE AND HANDLING

Extra-Label Drug Use in Free-Ranging Wildlife: Rules, Regulations, and Reality

The Use of Pharmaceutical Agents in Carnivores, Bears, and Ungulates Within a Wildlife Management Agency (Reality and Challenges)

A Brief Introduction to the Complexities of Working with Multiple Agencies to Conduct Wildlife Animal Use Activities

Challenges in the Capture and Handling of Wild Birds in Research

Capture and Handling of Free-Living Wild Small Mammals for Research and Education

SESSION FIVE: ROLE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE IN WILDLIFE RESEARCH

The Wildlife Veterinarian’s Role in Championing Animal Welfare Programs and Policies

Understanding, Respecting, and Enhancing the Role of Veterinary Medicine in Wildlife Research: A Wildlife Biologist’s Perspective

Understanding, Accepting, and Enhancing the Role of Veterinary Medicine in Wildlife Research: A Wildlife Veterinarian’s Perspective

Surgeries in the Field

SESSION SIX: PAIN AND DISTRESS, EUTHANASIA, HUMANE KILLING, AND LETHAL TAKE

AVMA Perspective on Ending the Lives of Wildlife Species

Challenges in the Humane Killing of Wild Birds as Museum Vouchers Supporting Biodiversity Research

Context-Dependent Challenges and Decisions for the Humane Killing of Wild Small Mammals

Challenges in Following Euthanasia Guidelines in Marine Fisheries Sampling

SESSION SEVEN: TRANSITION OF WILD ANIMALS TO CAPTIVE SETTINGS AND HOUSING CHALLENGES

Establishing Captive Populations of Wild Animals: Communicating with Your IACUC

Challenges of Wildlife Adjusting to Captivity: Negotiating with the IACUC

Compliance Challenges for Capturing, Transferring, and Keeping Wild Bats in Captivity for Research and Teaching

SESSION EIGHT: AVAILABLE TAKE-HOME RESOURCES

Terminology

Considerations for IACUCs

Additional Challenges

Final Thoughts

DAY TWO SYNTHESIS SESSION

Session Four Synthesis: Restraint and Handling of Animals in the Field to Include the Use of Compounds for Capture and Handling

Session Five Synthesis: Role of Veterinary Medicine in Wildlife Research

Session Six Synthesis: Pain and Distress, Euthanasia, Humane Killing, and Lethal Take

Session Seven Synthesis: Transition of Wild Animals to Captive Settings and Housing Challenges

Session Eight Synthesis: Available Take-Home Resources

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

A STATEMENT OF TASK

B WORKSHOP AGENDA

C WORKSHOP SPEAKER BIOSKETCHES

D WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE BIOSKETCHES

E WORKSHOP SYNTHESIS SESSION MODERATOR BIOSKETCHES

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Acronyms and Abbreviations

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