I hope you don't mind, I've taken a copy of your email to attach to the
OPRR announcement that will be sent to our IACUC membership who are
schedulled to discuss this issue at our next meeting.  We do have a
policy agreed to by the committee, but now must revisit to determine if
we need to re-evaluate the agreement and to what degree might we
need to change.

It would be very interesting, to me anyway, to see and hear how other
institutions who review this method have or have not been affected
by this notification; and what type of policy they have on hand to cover
this OPRR announcement.

Mary Ann Jurgus
Manager - Research Administration
Loyola University Medical Center
2160 S. First Ave. - 120/400
Maywood, Il. 60153
e: xxxxxx@luc.edu
f: (708) 216-5881
p: (708) 216-4288

>>> Carol Rodlun <xxxxxx@COMP.UARK.EDU> 1/7/98  3:28 pm >>>
Dear colleagues:

 Most of the discussions I've seen from this  group seem to be about IRB
issues but I'm hoping members may also have experience with dealing
with
IACUC matters so here is my inquiry:

 There are only a few projects using laboratory animals
conducted at my institution but at least one of them involves monoclonal
antibody production using the mouse ascites method.  Having received
the
November 17, 1997 OPRR Report on this subject that emphasizes the
responsibility of the IACUC to critically evaluate all protocols that
include this procedure and to assure that if the in vivo method is
proposed, that it is adequately justified over an in vitro one, we would
like to get some feed-back about how other IACUCs are addressing this
situation.  Are any faced with having to reevaluate how their committee
reviews these types of studies?  For those institutions which already
have
a restrictive policy about using the ascites method, what do you require
from the investigator to justify using the procedure vs. the in vitro
method?  When granting approval to conduct the ascites procedure how
closely are the mice monitored from a veterinary standpoint; what
provisions are imposed with regard to how often an animal can be
"tapped";
must the animal be anesthetized,  and what criteria are used to determine
when an animal must be euthanatized to be humane?

Thanks for any insights you can provide.
Carol A. Rodlun
Program Manager -- RSSP
E214B Animal Sciences Bldg.
1120 West Maple St.
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701
e-mail  xxxxxx@comp.uark.edu
ph. (501) 575-2994
fax (501) 575-7294