Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals - Office of ...

ENVIRONMENT, hOUSING, ANd MANAGEMENT8Waste disposal Wastewater treatment and disposal may be necessary insome facilities depending on water volume, quality, and chemical constituents.Local regulations may limit or control the release of wastewater.Pest Control Terrestrial animal pest control principles apply to aquaticsystems but, due to transcutaneous absorption, aquatic and semiaquaticspecies may be more sensitive to commonly used pest control agents thanterrestrial animals. Before use, an appropriate review of chemicals andmethods of application is necessary.Emergency, Weekend, and holiday Care As with terrestrial species, aquaticanimals should receive daily care from qualified personnel who have a sufficientunderstanding of the housing system to identify malfunctions and, ifthey are unable to address a system failure of such magnitude that it requiresresolution before the next workday, access to staff who can respond to theproblem. Automated monitoring systems are available and may be appropriatedepending on system size and complexity. Appropriate emergencyresponse plans should be developed to address major system failures.Population ManagementIdentification Identification principles are similar to those for terrestrialanimals. Identification criteria are based on the species and housing system.Identification methods available for use in aquatic species include fin clipping,genetic testing (Matthews et al. 2002; Nickum et al. 2004), identificationtags, subcutaneous injections of elastomeric or other materials (Nickumet al. 2004), individual transponder tags (in animals of sufficient size), and,as applicable, external features such as individual color patterns. Because itcan be difficult to individually identify some small aquatic animals throughouttheir life, group identification may be more appropriate in some situations(Koerber and Kalishman 2009; Matthews et al. 2002).Aquatic Animal Recordkeeping Adequate recordkeeping is necessary inaquatic system management. In general, the same standards used for terrestrialanimals apply to aquatic and semiaquatic species, although modificationsmay be necessary to account for species or system variations (Koerberand Kalishman 2009).Although many aquatic animals are maintained using group (vs. individual)identification, detailed animal records are still necessary. Animalinformation that may routinely be captured, particularly in biomedicalresearch with fish, includes species; genetic information (parental stockidentification, genetic composition); stock source; stock numbers in system;tank identification; system life support information; breeding; deaths;