Process approved for updating AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia

August 29, 2006 — AVMA News Bulletin

Meeting in Honolulu on July 13, the AVMA Executive Board approved a plan for updating and revising the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia Report. It was recommended by Dr. Bonnie V. Beaver, who was AVMA immediate past president at the time.

The plan provides that at least once every 10 years, the AVMA will convene a panel of scientists to review all literature that scientifically evaluates methods and potential methods of euthanasia, with the goal of publishing the AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia. During interim years, any request for procedures or agents to be considered for approval by the AVMA that deal with causing, facilitating, or complementing existing procedures of euthanasia will be directed to the Animal Welfare Committee. The AWC will evaluate available science on the procedure or agent to determine whether it should be included in the existing guidelines. If so, the AWC will draft appropriate wording and determine where it should be inserted. The AWC will then recommend the revisions to the Executive Board for inclusion, and if passed, the revised document will become the official version.

A case in point relative to providing guidance on euthanasia procedures was a proposed policy recommended by the Animal Welfare Committee on disposal of unwanted chicks, poults, and pipped eggs. Rather than approve the statement as a freestanding policy, the board voted to approve adoption of the policy for inclusion in the AVMA Guidelines on Euthanasia, as follows.

Disposal of Unwanted Chicks, Poults, and Pipped Eggs

Unwanted chicks, poults, and pipped eggs should be killed by an acceptable humane method, such as use of a commercially designed macerator that results in instantaneous death. Smothering unwanted chicks or poults in bags or containers is not acceptable. Pips, unwanted chicks, or poults should be killed prior to disposal. A pipped egg, or pip, is one where the chick or poult has not been successful in escaping the egg shell during the hatching process.

AVMA News Bulletin, August 22, 2006