Flying Snake

Photograph by Jake Socha

Did you know? The paradise tree snake is one of the smaller flying snakes and the best glider. It’s been known to travel a distance up to 330 feet in the air. You can discover more fascinating facts like this at National Geographic. http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/a-to-z.html

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New Version of IACUC.org

The new version of the IACUC.ORG website has been launched. The site provides resources to anyone interested in the functions of an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC). An IACUC is an ethical committee in place at every U.S. research institution (universities, pharmaceutical companies, etc.) with regulatory oversight by the USDA and the NIH. The people who browse this site are often new IACUC members or researchers learning about their IACUC.

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TriBranch Symposium 2007

The Delaware Valley Branch is hosting the TriBranch Symposium 2007 at the Atlantic City (NJ) convention center June 10-12. The preliminary program, abstracts for posters, and registration information may be found at http://www.tribranch.org/prelim07.html

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CTAD at the AALAS National Office

Members of the Committee on Technician Awareness and Development, chaired by Deb Lust, met in Memphis March 9-10 to plan for a variety of upcoming activities.

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March 2007 JAALAS Now Available

View abstracts and download articles (login required) at http://www.aalas.org/pdfUtility.aspx?pdf=currentCT.

BIOLOGY
Variation in Organ Volumes of Matched BALB/c Mice by Microcomputed Tomography Analysis
Robin J Kastenmayer and Kathy A Perdue

Effect of Method of Euthanasia on Sperm Motility of Mature Sprague-Dawley Rats
Shannon A Stutler, Eric W Johnson, Kenneth R Still, David J Schaeffer, Rex A Hess, and Darryl P Arfsten

Discrimination of C57BL/6J Rj and 129S2/SvPasCrl Inbred Mouse Strains by Use of Simple Sequence Length Polymorphisms
Celine Lamacchia, Gaby Palmer, and Cem Gabay

Genomic Comparison of Lewis and Wistar-Furth Rat Substrains by Use of Microsatellite Markers
Ralph J Callicott, Scott T Ballard, and James E Womack

Anesthesia for Cardiovascular Interventions and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Pigs
Gernot M Kaiser, Frank Breuckmann, Stephanie Aker, Holger Eggebrecht, Hilmar Kuehl, Raimund Erbel, Nils R Fruhauf, Christoph E Broelsch, and Harald H Quick

FACILITY MANAGEMENT
Use of Environmentally Enriched Housing for Rats with Spinal Cord Injury: The Need for Standardization
Darlene A Burke, David SK Magnuson, Christine D Nunn, Kimberly G Fentress, Mary L Wilson, Alice H Shum-Siu, Meika C Moore, Logan E Turner, William W King, and Stephen M Onifer

Efficacy of Fenbendazole and Milbemycin Oxime for Treating Baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis) Infected with Trichuris trichiura
Mason V Reichard, Roman F Wolf, David W Carey, Jennifer Jane Garrett, and Heather A Briscoe

EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUE
Strategies for Refinement of Abdominal Device Implantation in Mice: Strain, Carboxymethylcellulose, Thermal Support, and Atipamezole
Nancy A Johnston, Christine Bosgraaf, Lisa Cox, Joel Reichensperger, Steven Verhulst, Calvin Patten Jr, and Linda A Toth

A Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction Based on the gyrB Gene Sequence and Subsequent Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis of Pasteurella pneumotropica Isolates from Laboratory Mice
Nobuhito Hayashimoto, Masami Ueno, Akira Takakura, and Toshio Itoh

Complete Blood Count, Clinical Chemistry, and Serology Profile by Using a Single Tube of Whole Blood from Mice
Charles E Wiedmeyer, Dawn Ruben, and Craig Franklin

Automated Mouse Euthanasia in an Individually Ventilated Caging System: System Development and Assessment
Alyssa R McIntyre, Robert A Drummond, Elyn R Riedel, and Neil S Lipman

Comparison of Cardiovascular Effects of Tiletamine-Zolazepam, Pentobarbital, and Ketamine-Xylazine in Male Rats
Dhanonjoy C Saha, Animita C Saha, Gautam Malik, Mark E Astiz, and Eric C Rackow

The Evaluation of Whole-body Plethysmography as a Semiautomated Method for Analysis of Emesis in the House Musk Shrew (Suncus murinus)
Nobuhiko Tashiro, Masanori Kataoka, Kazunori Ozawa, and Takuya Ikeda

CASE REPORTS
Epistylididae ectoparasites in a colony of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis)
Kathleen R Pritchett and George E Sanders

Uterine Epithelioid Trophoblastic Tumor in an African Green Monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus)
David Chu, Ie-Ming Shih, Mary Knezevich, and Sachiv Sheth

PUBLIC STATEMENT
Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of Pain in Rodents and Rabbits
ACLAM

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Sixth World Congress

The Sixth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences is scheduled to be held August 21-25, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. For more information about the Congress and program submission forms, go to http://www.ech.co.jp/wc6/index.html. The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 31st.

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New Law for Tax Exempt Organizations

In August of 2006 Congress enacted and the President signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

The principle change made by this law, and one that will affect all Branches that have received a tax exempt letter from the IRS (qualifying the Branch as a 501(c)(3) organization) is that as of the year 2008 all organizations recognized as being exempt from Federal taxes by the IRS will be required to make an annual filing with the IRS. Prior to the enactment of this law, tax exempt organizations with annual income below $25,000 (from dues, meetings, exhibits or whatever) had no filing requirement. Organizations with income exceeding $25,000 always have been and will still be required to file an annual Form 990 (IRS Form 990, Return of an Organization Exempt from Tax).

Another provision of this law that may affect those Branches that file Unrelated Business Income (UBI) Forms with their annual 990 tax form (IRS Form 990-T, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return) is that they are now required to have this form available for public inspection as well as their 990s. (Advertising income in publications is probably the main source of UBI for tax exempts, including Branches.)

The changes made by this recent law for organizations that have received an exemption letter from the IRS pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code can be found at www.irs.gov. Click on Charities and Religious Organizations and once there click on “New Law Revises EO Tax Rules.”

As of this date, the IRS has not announced what will be required in the “annual notice” that those organizations with less than $25,000 in income will have to file as of 2008. The IRS website states that what will be required will be posted “soon.”

If your branch is filing a Form 990, it is recommended that your accountant or whoever is filing the 990 review this website.

As soon as the IRS posts its requirements for the Annual Notice AALAS will pass these on to the Branches.

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