The American Physiological Society (APS) announces the publication of a Resource Book for the Design of Animal Exercise Protocols. This book was developed by experts in the fields of exercise physiology and animal research models. It is intended for researchers, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs), and those involved with research oversight. The authoring committee, which was comprised of exercise physiologists and laboratory animal veterinarians, reviewed reference material and drew upon their own experience to compile suggestions about how to design, review, and implement experimental paradigms involving animals and exercise. The APS Resource Book was peer reviewed by other exercise physiologists and laboratory animal veterinarians. The PDF of the book is available online.
The opening chapter of the Resource Book outlines the scope of the document and addresses the relevance of studying exercise in general as well as the specific question, why study exercise in animals? It explains how suggestions about the use of animals in exercise paradigms contained in the APS Resource Book fit into the context of U.S. animal welfare requirements, including the Animal Welfare Act, the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ILAR Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Specifically, the APS Resource Book is intended to promote an informed dialogue that can help researchers and their IACUCs arrive at satisfactory answers to questions about how to assure the welfare of animals in exercise research protocols. To this end, the APS Resource Book includes 399 reference citations.