Standard Operating Procedure for Institutional Animal Ethic Committee:

The Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) has been constituted under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960. It gives the guidelines for the conduct of animal experiments.

*Animals are maintained in a proper and healthy manner.

*Animals are not subjected to unnecessary pain or suffering before, during and after performance of experiments on them.

*There is no unnecessary sacrifice of animals for the sake of science. There should be no duplication of research.

*Animals are kept in disease free condition to ensure proper data collection.

*Animals are procured from registered breeders.

*Experiments on large animals are to be avoided whenever it is possible to achieve the same results by experiments on small laboratory animals.

*For effective implementation of these rules and guidelines, the Institutional Animal Ethics Committees (IAEC) has been constituted in institutions conducting experiments on animals. This is a scientific body nominated by the Head of the Institution. The IAEC is required to examine proposals for conducting experiments on small animals, which would chiefly examine the necessity of performing the experiment, and ensure that experiments are not performed in a routine manner. All decisions are to be taken with the approval of the Committee. The Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Institutional Animal Ethics Committee for experimentations on animals will help the Principal Investigators, Animal Ethics Committee members and scientific researchers, for better understanding of the ethical procedures involved in animal experimentations.