Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

In 1962 NIH contracted with the National Academy of Sciences Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR) to develop the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, or simply the Guide. The Guide underwent its fifth revision in 1985. Its purpose is to assist scientific institutions in using and caring for laboratory animals in ways judged to be professionally appropriate. It is a long-standing NIH policy that grantees and contractors using live vertebrate animals in projects or activities supported by NIH should be guided by the recommendations in this publication.

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