The Great Eastern IACUC underwent an experience familiar to anyone that has served on an IACUC for any length of time. New members bring a new insight and interpretation to longstanding protocols. This 'new blood' can help the entire Committee and the investigator to re-examine their classification of the protocols with respect to pain and distress categories or other issues. The IACUC Chair should certainly nurture discussions of this nature and not dismiss the types of inquiries raised regarding this protocol. The fact that nonhuman primates are involved in a study as an induced model of Parkinson's disease furthers the need for careful and extensive review of the protocol.

This protocol should place all animals in the same category since they all undergo induction of a model of Parkinson's disease by MPTP. The category of pain or distress should be E (unalleviated pain or distress). This model is certainly associated with a degree of unalleviated distress since the animals require additional medical and husbandry assistance. Although the animals are given the additional attention, there is distress intrinsic to the model that is not eliminated by providing the necessary care. The surgically manipulated monkeys would still fall under this category since they initially are induced with MPTP to create the model.

The IACUC Chair was correct to state that the surgical procedure was a single major operative procedure as opposed to multiple survival surgeries on a single animal. The surgically manipulated animals undergo a single stereotaxic surgery in order to deliver the AAV2 intracranially. If additional intracranial injections are required, a permanent port could be placed at the time of stereotaxic surgery that would facilitate injections without additional surgeries.