| Definition Title | Definition |
ACPA or The Act | Animal Care and Protection Act (2001) |
Alternatives | Alternatives to the use of live animals in research and teaching e.g. videos, in vitro work, etc. |
Animal | Any live non-human vertebrate, that is, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, encompassing domestic animals, purpose-bred animals, livestock, wildlife, and also cephalopods such as octopus and squid. |
Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) | A committee constituted in accordance with the terms of reference and membership laid down in The Code. |
Animal wellbeing | An animal's quality of life based on an assessment of an animal's physical and psychological state as an indication of how the animal is coping with the ongoing situation as well as a judgment about how the animal feels. |
Biological product | Biological products are products derived from animals to be used for scientific purposes, including blood products, vaccines, antisera, semen, antibodies and cell lines. |
Chair, Chairperson | The person who conducts an AEC meeting. |
Clone | A genetic copy of another living or dead animal. It is not a twin derived by the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm (see Somatic cell nuclear transfer). |
The Animal Use Code | Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (current edition). |
Compliance | Acting in accordance with The Code. |
Conflict of interest | A situation in which an AEC member has an interest that may either influence or appear to influence their objectivity in the exercise of their duties as a member of the AEC. |
Consensus | The outcome of a decision making process whereby the legitimate concerns of members accept the final decision, even though it may not be an individual's preferred option. |
Death as an end-point | When the death of an animal is the deliberate measure used for evaluation biological or chemical processes, responses or effects. That is, where the investigator or teacher will not intervene to kill the animal humanely before death occurs in the course of a scientific activity. |
Distress | The state of an animal, that has been unable to adapt completely to stressors, and that manifests as abnormal physiological or behavioural responses. It can be acute or chronic and may result in pathological conditions. |
Ethics | A framework in which actions can be considered as good or bad, right or wrong. Ethics is applied in the evaluation of what should or should not be done when animals are proposed for use, or are used, for scientific purposes. |
Euthanasia | The humane killing of an animal, in the interests of its own welfare, to alleviate pain and distress (see Humane killing). |
Facilities | Places where animals are kept including yards, paddocks, tanks, ponds and buildings. |
Genetic modification (of animals) | The use of any technique for the modification of genes or other genetic material, but not including the use of natural processes such as sexual reproduction. |
Humane killing | The process of killing an animal with minimal pain and distress (see Euthanasia). |
Invertebrate animals | Animals without a backbone e.g. insects, worms, octopus, crabs, squid and snails. |
Investigator or teacher | Any person who uses animals for scientific purposes. |
Livestock | Animals that are used in commercial agriculture and aquaculture. |
Monitoring | Measures undertaken to assess the wellbeing of animals in accordance with The Animal Use Code. This occurs at different levels. For example, at the level of the researcher and animal facility manager, monitoring is undertaken to assess the wellbeing of animals that are used and cared for, and at the level of the AEC, monitoring is undertaken to assess the adequacy of standards of animal care and use. |
Pain | An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. It may elicit protective actions, result in learned avoidance and distress and may modify species-specific traits of behaviour, including social behaviour. |
Participant | Personnel involved in a project |
Pest species | An animal, usually introduced, declared by legislation as a pest in Australia/Queensland, e.g. rabbits and xenopus frogs. |
Project | A scientific activity or activities that form a discrete piece of work. A project cannot commence until it has been approved by an AEC. |
Proposal | A written application to carry out a project for consideration by an AEC. |
The regulator | BioSecurity Queensland as a component of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries |
Scientific activity | An activity required to achieve the scientific purposes. |
Scientific purposes | All those purposes which aim to acquire, develop or demonstrate knowledge or techniques in any area of science including teaching, field trials, environmental studies, research, diagnosis, product testing, and the production of biological products. |
Somatic cell nuclear transfer | The technique of inserting a nucleus of a cell from one of the body's tissues, other than a germ cell (a somatic cell) into an egg that has had its nucleus removed. |
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) | Detailed description of a standardised procedure. |
Teaching | Developing, imparting or demonstrating knowledge or techniques in any area of science. |
Vertebrate animals | Animals having a backbone, e.g. humans, amphibians, mammals, most fish, reptiles and birds. |
Vertebrate pest animals | Animals, including non-indigenous (introduced and feral) and native species, that are generally regarded, or have been declared under State or Territory legislation, as a pest species. |
Voucher specimen | Any specimen, usually but not always a dead animal, that serves as a basis of study and is retained as a reference. "Type" specimen is a particular voucher specimen that serves as a basis for taxonomic description of that subspecies. |
Xenotransplantation | The transplantation of living organs, tissues or cells from one species to another. It includes xenotransplantation for therapeutic purposes. |
Wildlife | Free-living animals of native, non-indigenous or feral species including captive-bred animals and those captured from free-living populations. |
