米国立衛生研究所の動物福祉軽視　「ショッキング」と研究者ら

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】暖房装置の故障で干からびてしまったり、研究者らが1週間も水や餌をやるのを忘れ、飢えや喉の渇きで死んでしまったりしたマウスたち。誰もそのことに気付かなかった。（写真はAFPが入手した米政府研究機関における動物虐待に関する国立衛生研究所（NIH）の報告書）
　あるいは施設管理者が過労に陥り、５か月近くにわたって２４時間、電灯をつけっぱなしの部屋で飼育されていた霊長類。
　これらは米国民の税金を使って医学や行動科学の研究を行っている米国立衛生研究所（ＮＩＨ）の実験施設で、２０１８年１月～２０１９年１０月の２２か月の間に起きた動物福祉に関する過失の一部だ。
　動物愛護団体「動物の倫理的扱いを求める人々の会（ＰＥＴＡ）」が情報請求によって入手し、ＡＦＰとのみ共有した記録によると、同期間に３１件のこうした違反が内部調査で明らかになったという。
　ＰＥＴＡとは異なりすべての動物実験にイデオロギー的に反対する姿勢をとっていない動物愛護団体なども、こうした違反について悪質であると激しく非難している。
　多くの科学者らは、医学の進歩のために動物研究は不可欠だと考えており、実験は厳格な法律と規制に従って行われることになっている。
　米動物福祉協会の研究員、エリック・クレイマン氏は「法律や規制は、動物の痛みや苦痛、ストレスを最小化するために存在している。だが最低限の基準さえも守られていなければ、大きな苦痛を伴うことになる」と指摘する。「訓練、獣医医療、餌やり、水やり。これは基本中の基本だ。こうしたことを適切にできないのであれば、動物に関わる仕事をする権利はない」と説明し、ＮＩＨの過失発覚は「ショッキング」だと語った。
　例えば処置室の温度が低すぎたために使用した電気毛布で、皮膚をやけどしてしまった犬がいた。スタッフが監視を怠ったからだ。また暖房装置が故障し、室温が一晩中３８度のままだったためにマウス１３匹が干からびて死んでしまったこともある。
　２０１８年７月にはある実験者が、ゼブラフィッシュ１５匹に食塩水を注射し、うち４匹が即死した。この措置は認可されていなかった。その３週間後には１８匹の魚に同じことが繰り返され、７匹は死んでいるのが見つかり、他の１１匹は安楽死が必要となった。
　また多くの手術で無菌操作や術後のケアがされていなかったという。その中には霊長類も１例含まれていた。
　動物研究を支持する団体「アメリカンズ・フォー・メディカル・プログレス」のパウラ・クリフォード事務局長は、発覚した動物福祉に関する過失をどのように捉えるかが重要だと語った。
　ただし同氏は「ＮＩＨの規模と飼育している動物の数の多さを考慮すれば、こうした出来事はかなり珍しく、衛生研究に関わっている無数の動物のほんのわずかな割合にすぎない」とも述べている。
　ＮＩＨはＡＦＰに対する正式回答で「貴社の指摘する出来事については（ＮＩＨ傘下の）実験動物福祉局が徹底的に調査を行った。ＮＩＨ内の各施設は再発防止のために多くの改革を行ってきた」と述べている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/10-12:19）

Mice baked to death after a heating system failure, or left to die from hunger and thirst when researchers forgot to put food or water in their cages for a week -- and nobody noticed.
Primates kept in a room where the lights were on 24-hours-a-day for nearly five months because a facility manager was said to be overworked.
A vet who failed to provide any care to a female owl monkey used for breeding after she became seriously ill and lost a fifth of her bodyweight, eventually succumbing to heart failure, fluid in the chest and abdominal hemorrhage.
These are among a litany of animal welfare failures that took place across a 22-month period from January 2018 to October 2019 at the laboratories of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the taxpayer-funded steward of medical and behavioral research of the United States.
A total of 31 internally reported incidents have come to light thanks to a freedom of information request made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and shared exclusively with AFP.
They took place at a variety of centers performing research in areas including diabetes, child health, mental health and more -- mostly out of Bethesda, Maryland but some at a facility in Hamilton, Montana.
In a statement, the NIH said it took all noncompliance incidents seriously and all of them had been thoroughly investigated by its Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), while changes to procedures had been made as a result.
But animal rights groups, including those that, unlike PETA, are not ideologically opposed to all animal testing, blasted the violations as egregious.
The laws and regulations exist to minimize animal suffering, pain, stress, and when even those minimal standards are not being addressed or not being followed, then you have significant suffering, said Eric Kleiman, a researcher at the Animal Welfare Institute.
Training, veterinary care, food, water: this is the most basic of basics. If you can't do this kind of thing right you have no business doing anything with animals, it's as simple as that, he added, calling the findings shocking.
- Repeated failures -
From historic breakthroughs like the discovery of insulin through experiments on dogs, to the development last year of an Ebola treatment via work on genetically-modified mice, and cutting-edge cancer therapies, many scientists believe animal research is crucial to medical progress.
But the testing is supposed to take place under strict laws and policies spelling out its conditions, including the size of cages, room temperatures and the animals' social needs, as well as vet visits and the need for hygienic surgery and post-operative care.
Federal research facilities are subject to the Public Health Service (PHS) Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, which in turns mandates compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, a landmark law signed by former president Lyndon Johnson 1966.
Unlike labs in universities and private facilities, they are not subject to site inspections by the US Department of Agriculture and are meant to regulate themselves.
Yet the repeated violations of policy show that this system is inherently flawed, said Alka Chandna, PETA's vice president of laboratory investigations cases.
On no fewer than five occasions, mice starved or dehydrated to death because employees forgot to give them food or water. The problem was not noted during the daily health checks, said one report from June 2018.
- 'What went right?' -
Other examples spoke to serial incompetence, said Chandna, including one where a dog sustained skin burns from an electric blanket used because the procedure room was too cold, but staff failed to monitor its use.
On another occasion, 13 mice baked to death after a heating system failure left them in 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) overnight.
In July 2018, an experimenter injected 15 zebrafish with a salt solution, even though this procedure had not been approved. Four of the zebrafish died immediately.
Three weeks later, the procedure was repeated in 18 fish -- even though the protocol had still not been approved. Eleven of these fish were euthanized and seven were found dead.
Few incidents led to serious repercussions: A facility manager who allowed primates to remain in a room with the lights on for five months was counseled and directed to monitor the lights daily, a report said in March 2018.
The vet who failed to attend to the owl monkey after having been notified by a vet technician that the animal was very sick was replaced, but it was not clear if they were fired or re-assigned.
Commenting on multiple surgeries that took place without regard to aseptic procedure or post-operative care -- including on a primate -- Kleiman said the question was not so much what had gone wrong as what went right?
- Small percentage? -
Animal testing has broad backing from the scientific community even as some advocate for a transition to other forms of research, including computer modeling and test tube based studies in line with the so-called three R's: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement.
Paula Clifford, the executive director of Americans for Medical Progress that campaigns for animal research, said it was critical to place the new revelations in context.
Given the size of the NIH and the very large number of animals it cares for, these incidents are actually quite rare and involve a very small percentage of the tens of thousands of animals involved in health research, she said.
In its statement to AFP, the NIH said: The incidents you have cited were thoroughly investigated by OLAW. The NIH intramural facilities have implemented numerous changes to prevent a recurrence.
There are cases where something goes wrong (as in any enterprise) but it is identified, corrected, and evaluated by OLAW to ensure that the correction is appropriate for the problem, it added.