USDA wants definition of 'distress'

Washington-

Government officials are considering adding a definition for "distress"to animal welfare regulations and changing the way laboratory animal useis recorded in research, experiments and teaching.

The modifications, proposed by the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), are efforts topromote the humane treatment of laboratory animals. A clarification forthe term distress is vital, officials say, because it's used throughoutthe Animal Welfare Act and "pain," which equally is used in theregulations, is defined. APHIS members also say modifications to more accuratelyrecord laboratory animal-use numbers are necessary.

But members of the American Veterinary Medical Association's NationalAssociation for Biomedical Research and the American College of LaboratoryAnimal Medicine say additional federal guidelines won't guarantee animaltreatment improvements, and some researchers say the changes will causeregulatory burdens.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), however, argues thatthe classification system is flawed.