CDC spends $3 million on animal care upgrade

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
ATLANTA–“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
has spent $3 million on animal care improvements since last year,”
Associated Press medical writer Mike Stobbe reported on November 16,
2006, after the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of
Laboratory Care International “threatened to revoke its approval for
the way the CDC treats lab animals.”
Among other violations of AALAC standards, Stobbe wrote,
“Faulty sipper tubes left some monkeys with no access to water,
leading to the dehydration death of an owl monkey and a rhesus monkey
in 2004. A rhesus monkey was mistakenly killed in 2005 because of
record-keeping and communications problems. Three rhesus monkeys
were given a deadly combination of anesthetic and analgesic
medications. The doses were consistent with published guidelines,
but killed the monkeys, leading to the CDC adopting new standards.

“The AAALAC report prompted the CDC to transfer oversight of
its lab animal care to director Julie Gerberding’s office and add
nearly 20 animal care staffers,” Stobbe continued. “The agency has
about 6,000 rodents and several hundred other animals, including
bats, rabbits, and monkeys, at three Atlanta campuses.”