Media Coverage About SAEN Stop Animal Exploitation Now

'Bungled' UF research projects should be terminated after animal deaths, group says

 

From Alan Festo, The Gainesville Sun, June 2, 2023

A watchdog group that last week asked University of Florida President Ben Sasse to permanently terminate a research project that resulted in the deaths of two dogs has sent another letter regarding the deaths of more than 10 research animals involved in three different "bungled" research projects.

Stop Animal Exploitation Now!, or SAEN, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitors U.S. research facilities for fraud and illegal activities, is calling on Sasse to terminate the projects and to fire those involved with the research.

“These bungled projects should be terminated because UF staff has proven that they are incompetent to carry them out correctly, and because better/more accurate non-animal methods exist,” wrote SAEN co-founder and Executive Director Michael A. Budkie in the letter to Sasse.

A record requested from SAEN shows the first project in question involved a dosing error that led to eight rats either dying or being euthanized.

A letter dated May 20, 2022, from David Norton, UF's vice president of research, to Axel Wolff, the director of the Division of Compliance Oversight for the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, part of the National Institutes of Health, states that the rats were administered five times the approved dose of meloxicam — a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug — during the experiment.

It states that due to the dosing error and the rats' age — they were acquired from the National Institute on Aging's rat colony — "8 animals died or were euthanized as part of a humane endpoint."

Corrective actions taken following the incident include locking spreadsheets to prohibit the altering of certain fields, and verifying the dosage of prescription drugs by two staff members before they are administered.

In another letter from Norton to Wolff dated July 19, 2022, mice obtained under a specific Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol were used in traumatic brain injury (TBI) procedures from May 25 through June 16 "without formal transfer as specified in the originating protocol." The protocol approved for the TBI procedures was terminated on June 16 by the principal investigator, but more TBI procedures were performed without IACUC approval between June 16 and June 21.

SAEN argues that a non-animal method has existed to replace this brain injury experiment as far back as 1991.

Finally, in a Jan. 9, 2023, letter from Norton to Wolff, Norton writes that in November 2022, "24 mice received a scald burn injury per the IACUC approved protocol." He notes that three of the mice died after they procedure prior to recovering from anesthesia. Two other mice died after "recovering from the procedure."

The mice were given a cocktail of drugs to sedate them before the scald burn injury procedure, but 16 of the 24 mice still responded to a toe pinch. Those mice were then given a second smaller dose of the drug cocktail.

A meeting between IACUC staff and UF's Animal Care Services noted that the second dose "may have contributed to the deaths."

The lab will now contact Animal Care Services veterinarians when "unexpected outcomes occur."

SAEN's most recent complaint against UF's animal research program comes on the heals of another complaint in February involving the deaths of two dogs that were part of a Duchenne muscular dystrophy study in mid-2022.

In that study the dogs each received an adeno-associated virus vector — a form of gene therapy — administrated directly into the heart. One of the dogs died a day after the procedure after its condition "rapidly deteriorated" and it ultimately stopped breathing. The other was euthanized about three months after the procedure due to "respiratory distress."

The study was suspended after university officials found that its principal investigator failed to follow through on "corrective actions" required by the IACUC.

Budkie, SAEN's co-founder, wrote a letter to Sasse in May asking that the project be "permanently terminated."

In an emailed response to The Sun regarding the complaint in February, a UF spokesman said it "is committed to the ethical use of animals in its pursuit of medical advances that benefit both humans and animals."

"Almost every drug, treatment, medical device, diagnostic tool or cure we have today was developed with the help of laboratory animals," the statement continued. "Animal research at UF is governed by a federally mandated Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee that reviews all requests for approval to use vertebrate animals and inspects all areas where animals are housed and used."

University officials say that its Animal Care and Use program has received full and continued accreditation from AAALAC International, a nonprofit that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science.

"Full accreditation serves as a testament to our program’s commitment to quality and humane animal care, rigorous research practices, and continuous improvement," UF's statement said.

See also:
Return to Media Coverage