Research Use of Tissue from Livestock

In your government funded research involving farm animals, you collaborate with a local veterinarian who occasionally sends you tissue samples.  The veterinarian receives no government funding and does not sacrifice any animals.  Are the farm animals whose samples come in from the field subject to the same standards and concerns as those in your laboratory?

K3R says: If the veterinarian is routinely obtaining tissues in the normal day-to-day activities of his practice, but is simply supplying the investigator with the material periodically (with no history or background on the patients involved), there are probably no guidelines or controls on this material that are required for this tissue source.  However, if the veterinarian is recruited prospectively to obtain tissues and/or to do a procedure specifically as part of an ongoing study that he would otherwise not be performing on a specific animal, this probably would fall under animal care and use guidelines.  Under these circumstances, a specific protocol would have to be approved by an Institutional Animal Care & Use committee ahead of time and relevant guidelines would apply.