Microbial Status and Genetic Evaluation of Mice and Rats: Proceedings of the 1999 US/Japan Conference (2000)
Chapter: Opening Remarks, Shin-Ichi Ota
Opening Remarks
Shin-Ichi Ota
Director
Division of Science Information
Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture
Tokyo, Japan
It is unnecessary to repeat the many positive consequences of this cooperative program since its beginning in 1980. However, I would like to mention the following noteworthy publications that have resulted from our meetings:
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Manual of Microbiologic Monitoring of Laboratory Animals, 1st and 2nd eds. (USPHS/NIH 1986, 1994).
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Establishment and Preservation of Reference Inbred Strains of Rats for General Purpose Use (Nomura and Potkay 1991).
International standardization of rats was undertaken first by this US/Japan Cooperative Program and subsequently by the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS). These activities have reached a global scale with the ICLAS International Rat Genetic Nomenclature Committee, which met first in 1994 in Sapporo, Japan; second in 1996 in Toulouse, France; and third in 1998 in Halifax, Canada.
Recently, biotechnology has made remarkable progress using transgenic animals, and international collaborative studies have used these animals widely. International harmonization of drug safety data for new drug development is also under way. Therefore, international standardization of the quality of laboratory animals as tools for obtaining reproducible data has become even more important.
The composition and location of US/Japan meetings have recently changed slightly. Earlier meetings were hosted by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. For the last 2 years, we have met
at the National Academy of Sciences, where the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research has been our host. I sincerely hope that we will continue having these meetings and will expand our discussion topics in the future. Since 1980, this meeting has been held only in the United States. For the US/Japan Science and Technology Cooperative Program to pursue the mutual benefit for which it was established, I believe that some future meetings should be held in Japan or, if Japan is not possible, in Hawaii.
Finally, I sincerely thank Dr. Judith Vaitukaitis and Dr. Ralph Dell as well as all US participants for their efforts in organizing this meeting.
REFERENCES
Nomura T, Potkay S. 1991. Establishment and Preservation of Reference Inbred Strains of Rats for General Purpose Use: Report on U.S.-Japan Non-Energy Research and Development Cooperation: Laboratory Animal Science. ILAR News 33(3):42-44.
USPHS/NIH [US Public Health Service/National Institutes of Health] . 1986. Manual of Microbiologic Monitoring of Laboratory Animals. 1st ed. (NIH Publication No. 86-2498). Washington, DC: GPO.
USPHS/NIH [US Public Health Service/National Institutes of Health] . 1994. Manual of Microbiologic Monitoring of Laboratory Animals. 2nd ed. (NIH Publication No. 94-2498). Washington, DC: GPO.
