PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the Guide — Pest Control in Animal Programs

Citation

Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, National Institutes of Health (Revised 2015), read from the PDF the Office publishes on September 24, 2026. Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Eighth Edition (National Research Council, National Academies Press, 2011), Chapter 3, Environment, Housing, and Management, “Pest Control,” p. 74, read from the full text published by NIH the same day. The Guide is copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences and is summarized here, not reproduced.

What It Says (Verbatim)

Section II, Applicability, first sentence:

“This Policy is applicable to all PHS-conducted or supported activities involving animals, whether the activities are performed at a PHS agency, an awardee institution, or any other institution and conducted in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territory or possession of the United States.”

Section III.A, Definitions:

“Animal – Any live, vertebrate animal used or intended for use in research, research training, experimentation, or biological testing or for related purposes.”

Section IV.A.1:

“The Assurance shall fully describe the institution's program for the care and use of animals in PHS-conducted or supported activities. The PHS requires institutions to use the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) as a basis for developing and implementing an institutional program for activities involving animals.”

Footnote 2 to Section IV.A.1:

“This Policy requires that Assured institutions base their programs of animal care and use on the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and that they comply with the applicable regulations (9 CFR, Subchapter A) issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Animal Welfare Act.”

What the Guide Says (Summary)

The Guide's “Pest Control” passage (Chapter 3, p. 74) calls for a regularly scheduled and documented pest control and monitoring program, aimed at keeping vermin out of the facility and eliminating places they can live inside it. It prefers nontoxic means of pest control whenever possible. It limits pesticide use in animal areas to when it is necessary, with the investigators whose animals may be exposed consulted beforehand, and with use recorded and coordinated with the animal care management staff, because pesticides can harm research animals and interfere with experimental procedures. It asks that trapping be humane. A shorter passage for aquatic species (p. 87) and a reference to a comprehensive pest control program as part of animal biosecurity (Chapter 4, p. 110) appear elsewhere in the book.

What It Means in Plain Language

The Guide is written as recommendations. PHS Policy is what gives it force at a funded institution: an institution that takes PHS support for animal work files an Assurance, and the Policy “requires institutions to use the Guide … as a basis” for the program. The Policy's definition of animal is “any live, vertebrate animal,” so mice and rats used in PHS-conducted or supported activities, which fall outside USDA's regulations, are inside this one.

At an institution with PHS-supported animal work and USDA-covered species, then, the pest control program in the vivarium answers to two documents at once: USDA's Part 3 for the covered species APHIS inspects, and the Guide, through the Assurance, for every vertebrate animal in PHS-supported work.

Who It Applies To

Every institution conducting PHS-conducted or supported activities involving animals, which includes research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The Policy does not reach animal work at an institution with no PHS support; such an institution may choose to follow it.

Documentation Evidence

• The pest control program as described in, or referenced by, the institution's Assurance and program documents
• The regular schedule of pest control and monitoring, and the record of each service
• Records of each pesticide use in animal areas, with the investigator consultation and coordination with animal care management staff
• Findings from the IACUC's semiannual facility inspections that concern pests, and their correction

Confidence Notes

HIGH confidence for the PHS Policy text, read from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare PDF (Revised 2015). The Guide summary was checked clause by clause against the text on p. 74. An earlier draft of this page said the Guide calls for coordination with the veterinarian; the passage names the investigators and “the animal care management staff,” and the summary was corrected to say so.