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Ray L. Watts, President
UAB self-reported incident where mice were paralyzed during
MS study
From Erin Edgemon, ConnectAL.com, November 20, 2018
The University of Alabama at Birmingham said it self-reported an incident
during a multiple sclerosis study where two mice exhibited paralysis of the
rear legs.
It’s an event that sparked outrage by one animal rights group that contacted
the media.
David Cannon, director of UAB’s Office of the Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee (IACUC), said the incident was reported to the “appropriate
regulatory entities.
“After careful deliberation, UAB’s Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee took appropriate action, and the National Institutes of Health
Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare confirmed that it supported our
corrective action plan,” he said.
The university did confirm the Office of the Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee board met on Feb. 28 and “discussed the noncompliance
associated with performing two separate procedures where active immunization
with myelin-derived proteins were performed on a total of 48 mice without
IACUC approval.”
In a letter to UAB President Ray Watts and the University of Alabama System
Board of Trustees, animal rights group Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN)
claimed “malfeasance perpetrated” by an unnamed researcher led to the
“suspension of a protocol” that caused the paralysis of multiple animals due
to the “performance of highly invasive procedures.” These procedures weren’t
approved by the UAB Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
The letter also pointed out other alleged incidents of UAB researchers
conducting unapproved procedures in 2016 and 2017, including 16 mice dying
from lack of water last year.
SAEN called on UAB to launch an independent investigation to determine if
there were any other incidents of noncompliance.
Cannon issued this response to SAEN’s claims about this year’s incident:
“The chief concern and responsibility among our highly trained researchers
who have the privilege of working with animals to advance science and
medicine is respectful and humane treatment; we give concerns raised by
animal activists close attention, as we trust they share that interest.
Faculty and staff work closely with UAB’s roughly 41-member Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee – which consists of veterinarians,
representatives of the general public, researchers, experts in occupational
health and safety and administrative personnel – to meet and exceed policies
of regulatory and accrediting agencies including the United States
Department of Agriculture, the Public Health Service and the Association for
Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International. In a
rare instance when corrective action is required, we take the necessary
steps to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future, and we
self-report to the appropriate agency or agencies.”
UAB didn’t release the corrective action plan, saying the matter was a
personnel issue and confidential.
But according to SAEN’s letter, UAB’s corrective action plan included:
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