News from Rus-LASA

Spring 2016 Course on the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

Contributions to the News section are not subject to peer review and reflect the opinion of the subscribing society.

A five-day intensive course on the care and use of laboratory animals organized by Rus-LASA at the Biological Faculty of M V Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) is planned for Spring 2016. This course (in Russian) consists of lectures and practical training sessions, according to the FELASA A Function program, and is designed for MSU employees as well as for the wider audience. For more information (in Russian), see http://www.bio.msu.ru/news/view.php?ID=1456.

Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology

Five new technical standards for laboratory animal accommodation and care are developed by the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology of the Russian Federation in cooperation with Rus-LASA:

GOST 33215-2014 Guidelines for accommodation and care of laboratory animals: Environment, housing and management.

GOST 33216-2014 Guidelines for accommodation and care of laboratory animals: Species-specific provisions for laboratory rodents and rabbits.

GOST 33217-2014 Guidelines for accommodation and care of laboratory animals: Species-specific provisions for laboratory predatory mammals.

GOST 33218-2014 Guidelines for accommodation and care of laboratory animals: Species-specific provisions for non-human primates.

GОSТ 33219-2014 Guidelines for accommodation and care of laboratory animals: Species-specific provisions for fish, amphibians and reptiles.

The requirements for the accommodation and care of laboratory animals stated in these five guidelines are equivalent to the corresponding parts of Application A of ETS 123, and will come into force on 1 July 2016. The term ‘come in force’ in this case means that they will be officially recognized and can therefore be referred to.

Even though these technical standards by the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology do not have ‘obligatory to use’ status, they provide extensive guidance in situations without other regulatory documents. For example, institutional programs of laboratory animal management can use these official standards as references.

Moreover, technical standards proposed by the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology of the Russian Federation are usually referred to in future federal laws. Therefore Rus-LASA recognizes this as a first step to the development of national federal laws on the care and use for the animals used in experimentation.

For more information about the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology, see http://www.gost.ru/wps/portal/en/about?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/gost/gost/aboutagency.