Standards for Wildlife Research: Taxon-Specific Guidelines versus US Public Health Service Policy

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NRC 2011) serves as the principal reference for the oversight of Most vertebrate use in research and teaching in the United States. The Guide was developed as a reference for biomedical research. Beyond guiding ethical principles, the Guide contains little information useful for the oversight of research involving wild taxa. To fill this breach, and at the behest of the National Science Foundation, taxon-specific societies in the United States developed independent guidelines that held to the principles of ethical use of animals in research and that were specific to wildlife. Recognition of these taxon-specific guidelines by federal grantmaking agencies and the animal welfare community as appropriate standards for wildlife research will facilitate the required oversight of research involving wild taxa and the ethical use of wild animals in research and teaching.