The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has recently made changes to regulations on research facilities that use animals in teaching or lab testing to reduce redundant requirements and streamline oversight protocols.

The ruling, effective Dec. 27, will eliminate certain requirements that drain research facilities and better secure animal welfare, a release from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said. APHIS expects approximately $91,000 will be saved annually due to the changes, according to the Federal Register.

“The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced a final rule amending the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations to reduce duplicative requirements and the administrative burden for research facilities while continuing to ensure humane animal care,” the release said.

One change is the elimination of the requirement for research facilities that have not handled animals for at least two years to request being placed on inactive status. This is meant to “reduce the administrative burden associated with submitting an annual report of animal use while inactive,” the release said.

Further changes include abolishing the administrative requirement to update registration every three years, as it is a duplicative obligation; clarifying the length of registration and conditions for termination; substituting yearly reviews of procedures with a thorough review of IACUC-approved protocols at three-year intervals in its place, and eliminating the need for official signatures on annual reports that guard against identity theft, the release said.

The action was facilitated by the 21st Century Cures Act, which guides USDA to work with the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health for an evaluation of regulations and policies for the upkeep and practice of using laboratory animals, the release said.