Guidelines and Policies

The development or revision of CCAC guidelines documents is prioritized by the Standards Committee and approved by the Board of Directors based on the following established criteria:

• animal welfare — potential for pain and distress, the number of animals used, and increases in particular types of animals
• relevance — information from animal care committees, assessment panels, and the CCAC Assessment and Certification Committee, and based on animal data and advances in laboratory animal science
• timeliness — changes to legislation, regulations, and current interpretation of scientific evidence
• achievability — availability of research evidence and guidance material from other jurisdictions

Additional factors taken into consideration include discussions with CCAC-certified institutions and other stakeholders.