APHIS Proposes Detailed Record
Requirements for Animals
April 18, 2003 - The USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) April 11 issued a proposed
rule [68 Federal Register 17752] that would require research
facilities to maintain legible medical records on animals
"as an additional element of the program of adequate
veterinary care…."
The proposed APHIS regulation would require that medical
records for animals include:
- The identity of the animal (with the exception that routine
husbandry, such as vaccinations, preventive medical procedures,
or treatments, performed on all animals in a group (or herd)
may be kept on a single record);
- The date, description of the problem, pertinent history,
observations, examination findings, test results, and plan
for treatment and care with a tentative diagnosis and a
prognosis, when appropriate;
- The type and chronology of treatment procedures performed,
the context of the problem to which the treatment procedures
pertain, and the identification of the medication used,
the date given, dosage, route of administration, frequency,
and duration of treatment;
- The names of all vaccines administered and the dates
of vaccination; and
- The dates and results of all screening, routine, or other
required or recommended tests.
The proposed regulation also establishes new requirements
for the maintenance of animal medical records. The proposal
would require that medical records be kept for one year after
the disposition of the animals and that one copy of those
records be provided to subsequent owners of the animals or
to any person to whom the animals are consigned. The retention
period for all other records and reports would continue to
be three years.
APHIS offers no justification for issuing the proposal. APHIS
states it "does not anticipate a great increase in burden
to regulated entities. Almost all research facilities and
more than 75 percent of other regulated facilities already
comply with these proposed minimum standards for medical records."
No citation for the statement is offered.
Comments on the proposed rule are being accepted until June
10, 2003.
Information:
Tony Mazzaschi, Senior Associate Vice President
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
tmazzaschi@aamc.org
(202) 828-0059
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